Care provision expectations of remote adult children of ageing parents.

ABSTRACT

The expectations of adult children about their elderly parents regarding their care provision was surveyed. We found that the needs and expectations regarding their elderly parents included better information on entitlements of their parents, how to access relevant aged care services, the challenges of remotely dealing with dementia and depression of their parents, accessing medical and non-medical services and access to respite care. The aim was to identify needs that ICTs could potential to assist with. While the majority of respondents (67.2%) stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the frequency of contact with their elderly parent(s), they also cited logistical/transport difficulties, lack of time and stress as potential barriers in being in regular contact with their parents. The responses also indicated a high level of interest in a service that could act as a case manager to assist the adult child in discharging their responsibilities, manage access to services and to monitor the well-being of the parent. There is a need for further research to explore how this might be accomplished, whether such a service was viable and what funding models could be applied.