Social inclusion and participation, including civic engagements such as volunteering, can be regarded as an important factor in quality of life of individuals particularly among older people. In the context of longer post retirement years in Turkey, there is a general lack of public activities available for older people. While the nature of contemporary demographic changes signal an increasing demand for lo ng- term care (LTC) workforce there is also emerging evidence that quality of life can be enhanced for caregivers through volunteering and social involvement. The current study reports on research aimed to determine within the city of Izmir in Turkey: 1) the extent of voluntary work in for profit as well as non- profit residential LTC facilities, and 2) levels of participation of older people (60+) as volunteers in LTC facilities. The findings indicate that nearly 10 percent of Izmir LTC facilities benefits from older peoples voluntary work.
Oglak, S. and Hussein, S. (2014) Elderly People Volunteering In Long-Term Care Facilities In Izmir, Turkey, Industrial Relations and Human Resources Journal, 16(3): 94-105.
volunteeringImage Credit: Randy Tarampi, unsplash.com
Founder and Director
Shereen Hussein is a Health and Social Care Policy professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom.
Shereen Founded the MENARAH Network in 2019, through an initial grant from the Global Challenge Research Fund, UKRI. She is a medical demographer with expertise in ageing, family dynamics, migration and long-term care systems. Shereen regularly collaborates with the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank in policy and research focused on ageing in the Middle East and North Africa Region.
Shereen received her undergraduate degree in statistics and a postgraduate degree in computer science at Cairo University. She completed an MSc in medical demography at the London School of Hygiene and a PhD in quantitative demography and population studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom.
Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi, Turkey
Sema Oglak is a Professor at the University of Aydin Adnan Menderes, Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations. Following several post-doctoral posts, she became a visiting research fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London, UK. Her research covered long-term care experiences of the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Israel and Italy. Her main research interests are in elderly long-term care policy and services, active ageing, health promotion, age-friendly environments, migrant care workers, and volunteering issues. She has been involved in several national and international projects related to long-term care services.
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