Instytucjonalne i kulturowe aspekty opieki nad starszymi mieszkańcami obszarów wiejskich w Wietnamie
Institutional and Cultural Perspectives in Elder Care in Rural Vietnam

Summary/Abstract: Traditional norms of filial piety in Asian societies, including Vietnam, emphasizecare roles of children for their elderly parents. In particular, caregiving is often theresponsibility of women, who are increasingly migrating and participating in the labourmarket, leading to an increasing withdrawal of family caregivers from caring for their parents.In collaboration with local mass organisations and stakeholders, Vietnam is enhancinginstitutional care and changing the balance of care towards home, community-based servicesand marketisation to provide alternative care options for its elderly population. Thecommunity is playing a key role in emotional support for the elderly. Taking into accountthe traditional Confucian-influenced family structure, the responsibility for elderly careis still a family matter. Using a dataset from a collaboration survey of 307 elderly peoplein 2017, the paper aims to examine and analyse roles, challenges and difficulties of family,community, private and public social services and policy in care provision to the elderlyand the gaps in it, to understand the processes of the reconstruction of those formal andinformal sectors in order to bear the increasing care responsibilities, and the ways theyprovide care to the elderly and the linkages with policies and institutional in Vietnam,using the care diamond model. The paper also raises issues of increasing left-behind elderlypeople in the rural areas and identifies various initiatives to sustain Asian cultural values,family relationships, and continuous development of care policies and potential implicationsin developing a better care mode for the elderly.

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