Abstract

Four hundred thousand dependent elderly people are living in Lombardy today. Who cares for them? To what extent are regional interventions able to cover the need for care and to what extent does it remain uncovered? How can public services, irregular care workers and private social organisations work together to meet a demand that is expected to grow sharply? This contribution summarises some of the results of the "First Report on the elderly care in Lombardy" (Maggioli, 2015), which focuses on the provision of care for the frail elderly people in Lombardy and on its changes. Family care resources will diminish over the next 20 years, in a demographic framework characterised by an increase in the number of elderly people living alone. Even today, one in three seniors in Lombardy is living alone. Informal care workers, especially migrant women, have been the answer in the past and they still continue to be a resource for many families. Over the years in Lombardy, a series of initiatives have been introduced to overcome the problems related to irregular care work. While highlighting the potential risks and problems as well as the future development, this study analyses some significant policies in support of families and private care workers in Lombardy: from those more recently introduced, such as temporary workers and job-sharing ("shared caregiver"), to those more consolidated such as service desks aimed at matching offer and demand, as well as cash-for-care schemes.