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Home / Family Medicine and Community Health, Volume 4, Number 1

Unregulated health care workers in the care of aging populations: Similarities and differences between Brazil and Canada

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Introduction: The world’s population is rapidly aging. Unregulated health care workers (UHCWs) are emerging as a potentially important workforce in the care of older adults.

Objective: A review was conducted to identify the activities of UHCWs with respect to contributions and limitations.

Methods: A systematic integrative literature review was conducted using online databases (LILACS, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and grey literature). The inclusion criteria were as follows: (i) description of UHCW activities related to older adults; and (ii) description of UHCW activities performed in Brazil or Canada.

Results: Eleven papers were included in this review. In both countries, UHCW activities included health promotion, mental health care, and rehabilitation. In Brazil, UHCWs performed integrated care, while in Canada UHCWs performed personal care and housekeeping.

Conclusion: These results highlight the potential and limits of UHCWs who provide care for the aging population. Such information is important to health and social policy making and household decision making.

Keywords: Aging; aging workforce; global health; older adults; unregulated health care workers

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 January 2016

More about this publication?

  • Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH) is an open-access journal focusing on subjects that are common and relevant to family medicine/general practice and community health. The journal publishes relevant content across disciplines such as epidemiology, public health, social and preventive medicine, research and evidence based medicine, community health service, patient education and health promotion and health ethics. The journal has a specific focus on the management of chronic illness particularly diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, chronic heart failure, hypertension, bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive airways disease and common mental illness. FMCH is published by Compuscript http://www.compuscript.com on behalf of the Chinese General Practice Press http://www.chinagp.net.

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