Unmet care needs are usually defined in terms of receiving sufficient help in instrumental activities and activities of daily living. Research on unmet needs is mostly based on quantitative data. Older persons' and informal carers' views and experiences have received less attention. In this paper, we rely on a definition of unmet needs which includes both unmet needs due to insufficient care and those situations where informal carers experience undue strain. Using theory-driven content analysis, we examine community-dwelling older adults' and their informal carers' experiences of unmet needs: what kind of unmet needs they have, why and in which ways these needs are left unmet and what would they want to do to improve the situation. The data consists of interviews gathered in Austria, Finland and Slovenia. Results of the analysis reveal that unmet needs are largely psychosocial in nature. The predominating task-oriented care systems often do not consider these as care needs. Using methods of qualitative content analysis, we conclude that care users' unmet psychosocial needs are related to lacking a personal relationship with care workers; means to maintain or develop social contacts and pursue activities and interests; and adequate home care services or respite care. Excessive responsibilities are put on informal carers as they top up and fill in the insufficient care. This study contributes to a broader understanding of unmet care needs: the relational aspects of care and the universal nature of psychosocial care needs should be addressed in care services.

Various studies indicate that the elderly are unwilling to move, while health issues are one of the important factors influencing decisions to move. In our study, we tested the willingness of the elderly to accept various housing options based on a large quantitative survey of persons aged 50 and above conducted in 2015 in Slovenia. Our focus was on the respondents’ attitudes to different housing options, especially less-well-known options such as senior cohousing, household groups, family caregiving for elderly people and multigenerational residential buildings. This is relevant for the future development of housing and care policies because in a majority of countries housing markets will need to adapt to the growing elderly populations and their diversified needs. We employ cluster analysis to analyze which housing options are acceptable, how people can be grouped regarding the acceptability of moving house, and the characteristics of these groups.

In countries with prevalent family care and less developed care services, it is important to understand the ways families cope with the care needs of their frail family members as part of policy learning to make care systems more sustainable. Filial care is a vital element of family care, yet is significantly restrained by the involvement of carers in the labour market; unequal gender distribution of the care burden; and insufficient recognition of, and policy support, for family care. This article considered the issue of the sustainability of elderly care in a familialist country, Slovenia, by identifying the coping strategies families adopt for the provision of care. To this end, in-depth qualitative data based on a purposeful sample of 55 community-resident users of social home care services and their 55 family carers were used. We identified five external coping strategies: use of formal care services, use of extended family network, use of wider community network, cohabitation, and home adjustments. Among internal strategies, we detected work-related adjustments; abandoning leisure activities; abandoning vacations; establishing new routines; accepting and finding satisfaction in care; increased psychological distress, such as worries and overburdening; and some unmet care recipient needs. Very few strategies may be described as supported by policy actions, despite such support being essential for increasing the sustainability of the family-based care model.

The process generally referred to as ‘the transition’ implied a complex set of social changes in Central and Eastern European countries (CEE). On the one hand, there were institutional reforms which were launched to abolish the socialist economic and political systems. On the other hand, the provision of welfare was also affected by ‘transition’. The change could be observed at the institutional level (i.e., through the welfare state) as well as at the social and individual level – in the ways individuals associated, how they perceived new risks and with whom they engaged to confront them. In this article we focus on social support provision from informal sources, i.e., ego-centered social support networks, which are an important foundation for the quality of everyday life. We would like to find out whether changes in the socio-economic system are reflected in and accompanied by changes in social support providers. How have people responded to transition? Did the patterns of support and social support providers change in this period? Consequently, the research question addressed in this article is the following: do the current types of social networks differ from those in the 1980s? We try to answer it by analyzing and comparing the data on social support networks in 1987 and 2002. The data are interpreted in the context of the transition that was happening in Slovenia at the time.