TITLE:
Expanding Older Adults’ Care Choices Utilizing the Proceeds of Reciprocated Volunteerism: Capitalizing on Ghana’s Digitalization Artillery
AUTHORS:
Delali A. Dovie, Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo, Bridget A. Ocansey
KEYWORDS:
Volunteering, Social Care, Social Roles, Reciprocated Care Receipt, Quality of Life, Technological Innovation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.13 No.6,
June
30,
2023
ABSTRACT: Ghana has been a collectivistic society. However, due to social change,
this value is fast being replaced by individualistic tendencies with
implications for age-oriented care provision and receipt. This paper
investigates the participation in the socially productive strategy of using ageing-oriented
volunteerism to leverage the receipt of care in later life utilizing a
quantitative dataset. The results show that volunteering may be undertaken with
old age in sight. This needs to take place
under circumstances of good communication skills among others. The accumulated time needs
to be recorded in a time bank and redeemed
with a time bank card in later life. Two-dimensional
leveraging points pertain
in this context: first, leveraging volunteerism for short or
long-term care in the nearest future; second, technological innovation’s facilitation of
the same. Volunteerism in this context has the attribute of
low levels of depression, with implications for quality of life. These are
discussed in the light of the social care pillar of ageing social policy. The
paper argues that adopting volunteerism with reciprocation as the ultimate goal
constitutes a kickback model for care receipt in later life. It served as a
choice of care in later life which is a shock absorber to inadequate formal
support infrastructure and individualistic social tendencies in Ghana. It is
reminiscent of resistance to the shrinkage of older persons’ social integration
in their social world.