Title: The Role of 'Faith-Based' Social Services Programs for Older People
Abstract: Context and controversies of government support. So-called faith-based social services are a demonstration of the words found in Ecclesiastes (1:9), There is nothing new under the sun. Religious groups, organizations, and institutions have long provided help to their members and in some cases the general community based on the tenets of their faiths. The term faith-based services referring to social programs came into prominence amid all of the fanfare and turmoil in 2000 with the change of presidents and especially after September ii, 2001. The new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) was established by the Bush administration with a promise to offer a new place for social services that originated in congregations and other religious groups. From the beginning, questions like the following were raised: What does this new term mean? What docs this new federal governmental office stand for? Interestingly, the term faith-based services may well end up being the most substantial legacy of this office in terms of aged care services. FAITH-BASED SOCIAL SERVICES IN CONTEXT Tobriner (1985) notes that religious congregations have been providing social services for hundreds of years. Prior to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, congregations provided a substantial portion of the services available to older adults. Many of today's largest long-term-care facilities were developed either by congregations or denominational groups in the early twentieth century. Prior to the New Deal, the three major providers of social services, particularly in long-term care for older people, were religious groups, the United States government's Veterans Administration in the form of old soldiers' homes, and local government entities, such as county or city governments. With the New Deal in the 19305 came the first major investment by the federal government to support services for older adults. At the center of these efforts was Social security which remains a critical income supplement for many people (Tobin ct al., 1986). In the 1960$, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society legislation infused even more governmental dollars into senior care at all levels. With the addition of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act just to name three key sources, expectations began to change. Prior to these important pieces of legislation, the average older adult did not expect much from the government by way of support services. However, in the course of a generation, older adults went from expecting very little from government to expecting a great deal from public social services in some way supported by federal dollars. This shift in expectations was not lost on the political forces that would like to see government's involvement reduced rather than expanded, but it is always easier to add services than it is to take them away. Ronald Reagan first began to publicly suggest that religious congregations should play a more active role in the social service community (Thornburgh and Wolfer, 2000). In 1980, the Older Americans Act was reaching maturity, becoming an established part of the formula for social service funding. The Vietnam War was over, and the country was rethinking how government would respond to citizen needs under the new Republican leadership. In this context emerged a great deal of concern that the Reagan administration simply wanted religious congregations to replace paid social services in support of older adults. Although this change did not come to pass, it did launch the first round of research and study of the role of religious congregations in social services to older adults. The OFBCI of President George W. Bush reflects another round in the effort to engage religious congregations in the work of social services, although it has not focused on working with older adults. In interviews Ellen Netting and I conducted in 2001 (Netting and Ellor, 2004) with Elizabeth Seale-Scott, the director of the OFBCI (housed in the U. …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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