Outcomes of Foster Family Placement for Elderly and Disabled: Foreign Doctrines and Russian Experience

Abstract

The article is devoted to research of a new type of social care in Russian legislation, which is a foster family for elderly persons and disabled. The increase in the number of elderly persons in the population structure along with the further predicted increase in life expectancy place the states before the new challenges and the need to search for the new flexible forms of social care for elderly and disabled. The active form of social care such as placement to specialized state institutions no longer provides an adequate level of care, furthermore, it doesn't allow for taking into account the individual characteristics and preferences of those in need. Maintenance of this active form in the future will only increase the burden on the state budget. The recognized (including recognition on the international level) form capable to satisfy the needs of this category of population is a family care. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to analyze the socio-demographic and cultural problems of family forms of care for the elderly and disabled, the legal regulation of these issues in Russia and abroad. This research, conducted using general scientific methods and methods of legal science (formal-legal, comparative-legal, etc.), made it possible to formulate some conclusions. The problem of insufficiency of the forms of social care for the elderly and disabled can be described as civilizational and culturally determined. Break-up of traditional forms of social life and economy management occurred along with the transition to a new type of family culture — the nuclear family. This type of family culture does not imply living of several generations together (meaning the absence of the family care for the elderly and disabled) and thus imposes on the state the obligation to search for and to develop the new forms of care for those in need. The organizational form that has received the most distribution in foreign practice is a foster family for elderly and disabled. This form is based on agreement of placement in a foster family with the obligations of a care-giver; the state fully or partially reimburses the costs of a care-giver and controls the fulfillment of agreement. A similar practice has developed enough in regional Russian legislation so that to assert the need to adopt it on the level of a federal law.