Elderly care policy, formal and informal care. The Swedish case.

This paper discusses the consequences of a 'greying' Sweden with respect to the present Swedish policy for the care of the elderly and the role of the family as care provider for the elderly. The present system of elderly welfare is questioned, based on demographic facts, a review of the service systems and research findings. The tentative conclusions are two-fold. Firstly, present trends point to a shift in the Swedish welfare model, from a publicly financed and run elderly care system to a mixed model based on public, private and voluntary resources. Secondly, the fact that the informal care system functions as the main provider of services for the elderly, means that the development and implementation of support programmes for the family caregivers is of crucial importance for the future. The challenge for the 1990s, then, is to improve conditions for informal carers in order to enlarge the caring capacity of the community.