Volunteering in Long-Term Care for Older People: The Potential for Social Innovation

Volunteering in long-term care (LTC) has long been associated with care delivery in Europe. In countries with a developed civil society such as the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany, intensive ongoing dialogue concerning LTC policies and practice reveals a high proportion of volunteer activities and their estimated economic value. In post-communist countries, however, such as Slovakia, Bulgaria and Poland, after decades of an overall state monopoly, central regulation and provision of social welfare, volunteering is only recently being ‘rediscovered’ and established in the public consciousness and within policies. This is particularly so for the area of LTC, where new functions and roles for volunteering activities are being discussed with a view to integrating volunteers in the network of LTC services. Similar developments can also be observed in Mediterranean countries such as Greece or Italy (GHK, 2010).