Expanding Older Adults’ Care Choices Utilizing the Proceeds of Reciprocated Volunteerism: Capitalizing on Ghana’s Digitalization Artillery

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 re-deemed 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.