Preventive social services in the field of elderly welfare: Examining the daycare services

Various services are offered to increase the welfare of older people in Turkey. However, these services are generally "maintenance" oriented. This situation constitutes the starting point of the study. The main purpose of the research is to reveal the current situation regarding day care services, which is one of the preventive social service models in the field of elderly welfare in Turkey, from the eyes of those who benefit from these services, those who are able to benefit from these services but not benefit from institution-based care services, and those who work in the field of elderly welfare. In this research using a mixed method design, a survey and the Successful Aging Scale were applied to 300 older people who received services from day care centers affiliated with the Ministry of Family and Social Services in Aydın and Çanakkale provinces, and who were able to benefit from these services, but who received services from nursing homes. The data were analyzed with SPSS, frequency analysis, arithmetic mean, standard deviation chi square analysis, Kruskal Wallis and Man Whitney U tests were used. In the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 36 people, including 17 older people who benefit from day care services, 12 older people who benefit from institution-based care services, and 7 people who provide services in this field. Data were analyzed via MAXQDA. In the research, it was determined that people who benefited from day care services were mostly women and widows; shopping was one of the most difficult issues. It was determined that the scale scores of the participants showed significant differences according to the variables of gender, working in an income-generating job, income, social security, having a child residing in the same province, disability, information about services, benefiting from day care services, income evaluation, frequency of meeting with children, person living with and difficulty in meeting basic needs. It was revealed that there was no significant difference according to the variables of having a child, chronic disease, marital status, and having financial difficulties. It was determined that older people who benefit from day care services have higher scale scores. It was revealed that while the older people benefited from day care services due to reasons such as loneliness, difficulty in cooking, they did not prefer to benefit from day care services due to reasons such as having incorrect information, worrying about the continuity of the services, lack of a place to stay and life outside the institution being more expensive. As a result of the research, a day care service model proposal based on the social model was presented. Keywords: Aging, Elderly Welfare, Successful Ageing, Preventive Social Work, Daycare Service