The Concept of Welfare Systems of the UK, Netherland and Finland - Assignment Example

Comparative Review Essay Plan Introduction Welfare refers to the delivery of minimal level of services mainly by the government that facilitate the citizens’ well-being. It’s often termed as support that is aimed at ensuring the citizens are able to get the minimum requirements or the basic requirements in the country. Developed countries have made significant steps in the sector and they ensure that the citizens get benefits that try to bridge the gap between the people who are able to earn a living and the ones who cannot (Lynch, 2005). The introduction will look at the welfare in the three countries and introduce the similarities and differences. The essay will also try to establish whether there is a similar approach to the same in the three countries. Elderly people well-being is an important aspect of concern to any country and so our argument will revolve around it. The essay shall also address the Body Welfare System in the United Kingdom: Elderly People with Dementia How the welfare system structured. The essay will look at the way the system is structured, how it works, its advantages and limitations. Identifying the five channels in a welfare system. Since this is a comparative review, it is important to compare the structure with that of the other two countries i.e. Netherlands and Finland. Since there must be strategies laid to ensure the system works, we shall also look at the plans that have been projected towards the success of the system. Welfare System in Netherlands This section just like the first one will address the structure of the elderly welfare system in Netherlands. This will encompass the advantages and limitations, its initiation and comparison with United Kingdom and Finland. Discuss the channels in a welfare system. The steps made towards its success will be discussed in length to establish the loopholes that could have been identified and the way towards addressing them. Welfare System in Finland Finland being a developed country has also adopted the children welfare system aimed at ensuring the children’s well-being. This part will address the way the system is structured in Finland and what the government is doing to ensure the plan succeeds. Comparison with two countries identified earlier. Issue Group: Elderly People with Dementia This section will include a brief explanation of the need to have a welfare system to cater for the elderly people with dementia. What are the laid strategies and are the people with dementia always treated in the United Kingdom. How is it done in Netherlands and Finland? What are the similarities and differences in the way the same is handled in the three countries? This section will also look at the channels that provide assistance and support to the elderly people with dementia. Which is the best welfare system among the three. What are the reasons behind the presence of the differences identified? Coming up with a thesis statement. Conclusion The conclusion will look at the comparative review and check whether the issues raised in the introduction have been addressed successfully. Comparative Review Welfare System in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom welfare system has been developing for years with new needs arising and forcing the stake holders to adopt new ways and plans. This started after 1945 and it has encountered many problems which include financial crisis in the 1980s which saw Margaret Thatcher rise and become a significant figure for trying to address the issue. There are five distinct groups of services which are included in the welfare benefit scheme in the UK (Faher, n.d). These include personal social services, healthcare which encompasses our discussion on dementia and the elderly, education, housing and cash benefits (Faher, n.d). The people with Alzheimer’s disease often suffer dementia which makes it complicated for their relatives to handle them. Since they cannot make a living on their own, they have to rely on the government’s welfare system to sustain their living (Welfare Reform on the Web, 2012). The roles of a guardian are important in a dementia case as he/she will be the one taking care of the elderly (Alzheimer Europe Organization, 2012) The UK population is faced by a great problem since many of the people lie in the aging category and the susceptibility to dementia is a function of age. This calls for measures to ensure that the aging population gets the attention and the services they require to live a good life. People who develop dementia before the age of 65 years get entitled to a disability living allowance that is a fund meant to sustain their living as it is normally hard for them to do any work to raise enough money for their upkeep. For the ones that develop dementia after 65 years in age, they benefit from the attendance allowance which serves the same purpose as the disability living allowance. There have been plans developed to make people save much before they retire to cater for their old age (Department for Work and Pensions-UK, 2013). One of the differences between UK and other developed countries is that regardless of the high number of aging persons, it has been able to cater for them in a significant way which includes creation of homes where they can get the attention and nursing they need in a centralized place. Comparison of Welfare Systems Netherlands To promote the welfare system and ensure that the elderly who are more susceptible to dementia get the care and the services they need, the government has introduced health insurance policies that are affordable and available to all people. Unlike in the United Kingdom where the government has used much investment to ensure that the people get the care they need, in Netherlands, the government empowers the people to invest when they can and avoid suffering when dementia knocks. In the delivery of the health insurance policy, the government prohibits the assessment of the risk portended by the person. This is done to enhance equity among all people and ensure that all people can access the services (Hendriks, Spreeuwenberg, Rademakers & Delnoij, 2009). There are two competitive plans which are used to cater for the citizens (Rosenau & Lako, 2008). They include the curative care which is financed from private obligatory insurance and the long term care for the people advanced in age and the mentally compromised which is covered by social insurance. The social insurance plan is funded from taxation i.e. the national government. This is quite different from the way it is done in the United Kingdom where the care for the elderly though not solely offered by national health insurance fund is also offered by private health insurance agencies. Finland The constitution categorically states that the government must provide each citizen with sufficient social and health services at any given time. The people with dementia fall under this category and so they are entitled to get the services they need. The social welfare and health act in the Finnish constitution has the legislation on this issue (Alzheimer Europe Organization, 2009). Discrimination is highly discouraged and all citizens are supposed to get equal share of the national cake. Unlike in the United Kingdom, in Finland there is an action plan called the National Framework for High-Quality Care and Services for Older People that was put in place to address the issues that face the people who are advanced in age such as dementia. This framework was devised to help the local authorities and set national guidelines that are used to come up with good services for older people. This framework puts much emphasis on home care, service housing and residential care as the main ways used to deliver its mandate to the citizens. This has greatly enhanced the provision of professional social and health care services to the people with dementia (Vaarama & Kautto, 2001). Services have been made available to the people and the main objective of the government is to make the services available and affordable to all people regardless of their class. On top of this, the people who are employed to work in handling the older people who have dementia must meet certain requirements that will ensure the services given are the best. This has made the welfare system in Finland one of the best in Europe and the developed countries. Conclusion Every country has its own way of addressing the problem elicited by the people with dementia. As one’s age advances one becomes more susceptible to the condition. The condition renders one unable to do many things on their own as much of the central nervous system is compromised (Schoenmakers, Buntix & Delepelerie, 2010) This is why various governments have come up with welfare systems that are discussed in this section that address the issue and ensure that its citizens have access to affordable and efficient services. Though the plans are quite different from one country to the other the core objective remains the same. Bibliography Alzheimer Europe Organization. 5th July 2009. Finland: Homecare. Retrieved From. Alzheimer Europe Organization. March, 2012. United Kingdom. Available at. Department for Work and Pensions-UK. 16th April 2013. Simplifying the Welfare System and Making Sure Work Pays. Employment and Welfare. Available at. Faher, N. n.d. Country Studies and Links: United Kingdom. Available at. Hendriks, M., Spreeuwenberg, P., Rademakers, J. & Delnoij, D. M. J. (2009). Dutch Health Care Reform: Did it Result in performance Improvement of Health Plans? A Comparison of Consumer Experiences over Time. BMC Health Services Research 2009. 9(167). doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-9-167. Lynch, J. 2005. The Age of Welfare Patronage, Citizenship, and Generational Justice in Social Policy. Centre for European Studies Working Paper No. 11. Centre for Basic Research in the Social Sciences. Harvard University. Rosenau, V. P. & Lako, C. J. (2008). An Experiment with Regulated Competition and Individual Mandates for Universal Health Care: The New Dutch Health Insurance System. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Available at. Schoenmakers, B., Buntix, F., & Delepelerie, J. (2010). Supporting Family Carers of Community-Dwelling Elder with Cognitive Decline: A Randomized Control Trial. International Journal of Family Medicine. 2010(184252). Vaarama, M. & Kautto, M. (2001). Social Protection for the Elderly in Finland. National Research Center for Welfare and Health. Helsinki. Welfare Reform on the Web. June 2012. Care of the Elderly-UK. Issue 155. Available at. Read More