St Petersburg University expert: a foster family is a priority placement option for senior citizens
St Petersburg University scholars have analysed the recent jurisprudence, applying legislation on the organisation and operation of fostering services for seniors and persons with disabilities. The lawyers concluded that a foster family should become a primary form of social services for the elderly and disabled. Not only will it deter real estate fraud schemes, perpetrated by unscrupulous pseudo social workers, it will also improve the quality and safety of adult social care.
The implementation of the adult social care legislation was monitored by scholars from St Petersburg University: Professor Nelli Diveeva; Associate Professor Aleksandr Kuzmenko; Associate Professor Fatima Nogailieva; and Associate Professor Marina Filippova.
In Russia, one fifth of the population is beyond the retirement age. According to statistical forecasts, this share will rise, reaching 25.4% by 2025, which amounts to 37 million people. Such dynamics, experts say, prompts us to seek solutions to the challenges of long-term care for older adults.
In recent years, a foster family as an innovative form of social services for the elderly has begun to develop in Russia. By 2021, more than 50 constituent entities in the Russian Federation have started developing family foster care for seniors. The older people family foster care model is guided by international legal norms.
A foster family as a form of living arrangement involves living together in a joint household and sharing housekeeping tasks. It is therefore considered a form of in-home care services. An adult foster family is based on an agreement between a public social services centre, a carer and a senior citizen. The agreement shall contain a list of services provided in the foster family, and the amount of remuneration of the carer. Before signing the agreement, the parties meet and receive psychological training. A foster family cannot accommodate more than two people. The social services centre may refuse to register an adult foster family if the living conditions of the carer do not meet the necessary requirements.
St Petersburg University experts are confident that the foster family care model has a number of advantages over other elderly caregiver assistance programmes. These include lifelong support agreements and residential care facilities or adult day care centres. ‘With regard to lifelong support agreements, there is a risk of elder abuse. It is not infrequent that maintenance recipients are unlawfully deprived of their property — even if formal rules may seem to be observed — with public and non-governmental care providers for the elderly and disabled as beneficiaries,’ said Nelli Diveeva, Professor in the Department of Labour Law and Labour Protection at St Petersburg University.
St Petersburg University experts are confident that the foster family care model has a number of advantages over other elderly caregiver assistance programmes. These include lifelong support agreements and residential care facilities or adult day care centres.
Furthermore, if an older person is admitted to an inpatient facility, it is difficult to control his or her living conditions. Quite often everything is justified by budgetary constraints. While analysing the current jurisprudence, the lawyers found a large number of court decisions on the violations of state sanitary-epidemiological and fire safety rules in nursing homes for the elderly. In the foster family care model, an authorised state agency oversees the fulfilment of obligations under the agreement. In a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, a monitoring system to assess adult foster family placements has been implemented.
Providing there are no strict medical indications for admission to an inpatient facility and there is no need for full term nursing care, social care authorities should make efforts to prioritise a foster family placement. In this case, a senior can enjoy living in a safe and comfortable family home, feeling useful and needed, while securing intergenerational relations and receiving proper care.
Nelli Diveeva, author of the monitoring report on the implementation of the adult social care law
Another advantage of this model is that it allows for a flexible approach to organising state control. For example, in a foster family agreement, it is possible to determine the frequency of caseworker visits to the foster family and identify the necessary psychological and pedagogical support provided by the social care agency. ‘Moreover, the regulatory gaps do not cause legal problems, as these regulations can be established by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, allowing a certain amount of variability in the foster family agreement format,’ the expert explained.
It is also noteworthy that setting an age ceiling for carers can hinder the effective implementation of foster family initiatives. Formally, upon reaching 60 years of age, the agreement must be terminated. A carer, however, may be in good health and perfectly capable of fulfilling the contract obligations. And most importantly, the carer may have an established, trusting relationship with the senior living with the foster family.
According to the scholars, the age ceiling should be replaced by certain requirements for the carer’s overall health status, confirmed by a medical report. This will allow for an individual approach to the foster family care model in the interest of the elderly and disabled.