The master’s thesis regards the opinion of the elderly towards the existing forms of long-term
care. It stems from the fact that ageing of the population increases the need for various forms
of help and support, but it also poses the question on how the elderly understand long-term care,
how well do they know the rights and services they are provided with, and what is their opinion
on individual forms of help. The special attention is given to the elderly in the rural environment
where the services are often difficult to access, and the family, neighbors, and other forms of
informal care play an important role.
In the theoretical part, there are the following concepts presented: old age and ageing in the
modern society, ageing in the rural environment, definition of long-term care, the need of the
elderly for long-term care, Long-term Care Act, formal or informal forms of care, and social
work with the elderly. The special attention is given to modern dynamics which emphasis the
support for the longest period of life as possible spent at home, for the development of collective
forms of care and for adjusting the help to the concrete needs of an individual. Through the
interviews with the elderly, who live at home, I could conclude that they understand the term
of long-term care very multilayered, mostly as a form of help with daily tasks, personal hygiene,
as a support with life at home, with socializing, social security, and institutional care. The
knowledge of Long-term Care Act among the elderly is mostly scarce, and often limited to
individual information, mostly to paying the additional fee for the long-term care. The
knowingness of services and programs in the local area is also uneven. The elderly are best in
knowing mostly of those forms of help which are linked to the everyday life in the comfort of
their home, such as help at home, food delivery, community nursing services, organized
transportation and day centers. Some interviewees link the nursing homes to safety, care, and
help, others may link it to the loss of homeliness, independence, and freedom. Other, collective
forms of long-term care are generally rated more positively, mostly because they enable longer
period of time lived at home. At the same time, the interviewees point out the problems with
the accessibility of the services, lack of information, and financial obstacles. The role of the
social worker is only partially recognized among the elderly; there, where they recognize it,
they mostly link it to counselling, guiding, helping with formalizing the rights and offering
support in distress.
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