CAREN logo

You are here

  1. Home
  2. Long-term care in Spain: Difficulties in professionalizing services

Long-term care in Spain: Difficulties in professionalizing services

The aim of this article is to analyze the difficulties in professionalizing the long-term care system in Spain. Since 2006, the new Spanish law has recognized care as a subjective right, and regulations are being designed to create a framework for its professionalization. Nowadays, family remains the most important group of providers who care for their elders, and women remain the main informal caregivers. Why do families resist using public long-term care services and professional carers included in the new law? The hypothesis highlights sociocultural factors as an obstacle to professionalization of long-term care services in addition to political and economic factors. The results show qualitative data about expectations, preferences, and discourses that women caregivers have in relation to their responsibility. The empirical material includes 25 interviews with different profiles of caregivers and six focus groups with family caregivers. The article suggests that the Spanish ideal of care is a problem for the professionalization of services because the family remains as the main provider of care—without specific skills, knowledge, and abilities. 

Access source material through DOI

Key Information

Type of Reference
Jour
Type of Work
Journal article
ISBN/ISSN
08952841
Resource Database
A9h
Publication Year
2017
Issue Number
3
Journal Titles
Journal of Women & Aging
Volume Number
29
Start Page
200
End Page
215