Abstract

This article analyses elderly care in Turkey and compares it with Southern European countries in relation to welfare regime and ageing discussions in literature. It highlights care services provided by various actors such as the State, the family, and the market. Furthermore, in the analysis of elderly care services, public policies related to structural labour market and demographic challenges, such as gender equality, family, and home-care support, are discussed. The main objective of this paper is to highlight major characteristics of the Turkish caring system and particularly elderly care, which has attracted very few researchers so far in light of welfare regime discussions. Even though the role of the State has increased in the management of social risks in the last decades, families still play significant roles in care services. This paper shows that long-term care services respond to a social assistance principle, rather than a universal care principle in Turkey. The methodology used in this article depends on secondary quantitative data on care services and surveys on family and elderly care, particularly in Istanbul. In addition to these datasets, the "Turkish Family Structure" (2011) and the "Conditions of the Elderly and Social Services in Istanbul" (2015) surveys have been used to understand the effect of care services on the welfare of old people in Turkey.