Foisted Upon the Government?: State Responsibilities, Family Obligations, & Care of the Dependent Aged in Late 19th-Century Ont.While government officials in the 1890s claimed that forcing families to take responsibility for caring for the aged was in the interest of the elderly, Edgar-André Montigny reveals that government policy had more to with saving money than a desire to serve the aged. He provides a harsh critique of Ontario government policies toward the elderly and their families at the end of the nineteenth century and highlights similarities between what happened in the 1890s and current policy reforms in the area of long-term care. Montigny argues that government played a central role in determining how society viewed the elderly and family obligations to them. Using census data, municipal records, and institutional case files, he demonstrates that the government created and promoted an image of the aged population that bore little resemblance to reality and manipulated the concept of family obligations to justify policies to reduce social welfare costs. The effect of these policies, passed in the name of helping the elderly and their families, was almost universally negative. By dispelling the myths that continue to influence public policy concerning the aged, Montigny provides a useful warning of the negative consequences of policies that are enacted to cut costs rather than to serve the population they are supposed to help. |
Contents
Population Aging OldAge Dependency and Public Policy in Historical Perspective | 21 |
Home and Family A Demographic Profile of the Aged in Nineteenth Century Ontario Brockville 1851 1901 | 33 |
Dependency Employment and Need among Ontarios Aged Perception and Reality | 50 |
Families Neighbours and Communities Local Support Systems for the Aged Poor in NineteenthCentury Ontario | 63 |
Government Policy towards the Dependent Aged in Ontario Institutions and the Ideal Family | 82 |
Institutions and the Impact of Public Policy on the Aged The Elderly Patients of Rockwood Asylum 18661906 | 108 |
Other editions - View all
Foisted upon the Government?: State Responsibilities, Family Obligations ... Edgar-André Montigny No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
age of sixty aged kin aged person aged population Ageing and Society Aging in Early American argued assistance Brian Gratton Brockville burden Canada Canadian Historical Association caregiving caring census cent century Change Charity communal support concerning council David Thomson David Van Tassel Debates decades demographic dependent aged destitute East Gwillimbury economic elderly population England family members family obligations fiscal restraint Gagan Grenville Counties Health historians House of Industry household heads Ibid income increase institutionalized institutions J.B. Williamson Jill Quadagno Leeds and Grenville legislators Legislature lived long-term long-term-care reform Michael Anderson municipal neighbours Niagara District nineteenth number of aged officials Old Age older outdoor relief patients Peter Laslett Peter Stearns petitions Poor Relief population aging portion poverty provincial Public Policy Ramson reports responsibility Rockwood senile session Social History Social Policy Social Welfare tion Toronto University Press Upper Canada widowed women York
Popular passages
Page 8 - I am arguing, then, that society creates the framework of institutions and rules within which the general problems of the elderly emerge and, indeed, are manufactured. Decisions are being taken every day, in the management of the economy and in the maintenance and development of social institutions, which govern the position which the elderly occupy in national life...
References to this book
Aging: Culture, Health, and Social Change David N. Weisstub,David C. Thomasma,S. Gauthier,G.F. Tomossy Limited preview - 2001 |
Into the House of Old: A History of Residential Care in British Columbia Megan J. Davies Limited preview - 2004 |