As other businesses, cooperatives may cater to all intents and purposes. They do distance themselves from mainstream enterprises though: cooperatives are jointly owned and democratically operated by a group of people who work towards shared economic goals. Thinking and providing elderly care services through the cooperative model can offer valuable opportunities regarding generational transition issues, both in terms of economic viability and concern for elderly wellbeing.

In a context of generational transition, elderly care is a challenge for many European communities. Public services rarely cover the broad range of services required to ensure a decent life to older people. Moreover, elderly care services – especially home care ones – may be too expensive for many families: older people’s relatives have thus to assume the role of (informal) caregivers. A cooperative model may help a community to meet some of its needs and concerns in a long term and viable way, e.g. by reducing care expenses (collective purchasing of goods and services), or by allowing families to create and manage themselves the services they need (training to informal caregivers, home nursing).

A cooperative organisation may also offer opportunities for professional caregivers to improve their working conditions. A large part of home care services is provided by independent professionals (e.g. nurses), who have to comply with constraining working schedules (night shifts, difficulty to arrange leaves…) and poor social benefits (weak or expensive retirement plans, no unemployment benefit…). Care worker cooperatives aim at granting professional caregivers improved working conditions, better coordination of services and expanded work opportunities.

Last but not least, care receivers are growingly yearning for opportunities to be active in their environment and community: the “active and assisted living” programme is an illustration of this concern. Involving older people not only as care receivers, but also as members of their elderly care cooperative, is a way to meet these aspirations.

The cooperative model is thus worth considering for all aspects of elderly care. Experience has demonstrated that care providers, receivers and the community at large can definitely improve their own conditions in creating a cooperative, allowing the creation of viable and democratically-owned and managed solidarity systems.