West P, Illsley R, Kelman H
Soc Sci Med. 1984;18(4):287-95. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(84)90117-5.
In the context of the continuing debate about how responsibility for the care of the disabled, chronically sick and elderly (collectively termed dependency groups) should be allocated as between the family and state and informal and formal caring agencies, this paper reports the basic findings of a survey of care preferences advocated by the public in three locations in Scotland, an urban metropolis, a large city and a small town in a rural setting. The results show that while there is little difference in preference patterns between the locations the public is discriminating in its support for care arrangements for patient/client groups with age-related physical and mental impairment. Overall, there is considerable support for a range of services termed community based professional care--day care centres, day hospitals and in respect of the elderly, sheltered housing. Residential care is less often preferred with the notable exception of senile dementia. Similarly, there is only limited support for informal care without professional involvement. The public, it seems, are not inclined to allocate the major responsibility for the care of dependency groups to the family and close kin preferring instead a continued policy of partnership between informal care systems and the welfare state in which the former does not replace the latter.
在关于如何在家庭与国家以及非正式和正式照料机构之间分配对残疾人、慢性病患者和老年人（统称为依赖群体）的照料责任的持续辩论背景下，本文报告了一项在苏格兰三个地点（一个大都市、一个大城市和一个乡村小镇）对公众所倡导的照料偏好进行调查的基本结果。结果表明，虽然不同地点之间的偏好模式差异不大，但公众在支持为患有与年龄相关的身心障碍的患者/客户群体提供照料安排方面存在差异。总体而言，公众对一系列被称为基于社区的专业照料服务——日托中心、日间医院以及针对老年人的庇护住房，给予了相当大的支持。除了老年痴呆症这一显著例外，人们较少倾向于选择寄宿照料。同样，对于没有专业人员参与的非正式照料，支持也较为有限。看来，公众并不倾向于将照料依赖群体的主要责任分配给家庭和近亲，而是更倾向于非正式照料系统与福利国家之间持续的伙伴关系政策，即前者不会取代后者。
