Elderly Care in Rural Ghana

Abstract The traditional family system in Ghana has changed as a result of the breakdown of traditional values, the growing incidence of the nuclear family, and difficult economic circumstances. Research into aging in Ghana, between 1984 and 2000, revealed that most of the older population lived in rural areas and included more females than males. Available evidence reveals that four out of every five older persons living in the rural areas of Ghana are engaged in agriculture. Apart from living in rural areas and engaging in agriculture as the main source of income, lack of formal education is also a major area of concern for older persons in rural Ghana. Consequently, older adults, particularly those in rural areas, who do not have access to formal support systems have nothing to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of extended family support. The study presented in this chapter sought to learn about the support systems and survival strategies of older adults amid diminished extended family support in Ghana and explore the nature and extent of the extended family’s involvement in the lives of older adults in the study area. This study was conducted in Bamang, a village in the Kwabre East District of the Ashanti region in Ghana. The village was selected because it depicts a typical case, having the social, demographic, economic, and geographic characteristics of a rural community in Ghana that is of interest to this study.