The diversity of terms and meanings relating to housing with services for older people confounds systematic analysis, especially in international comparative research. This paper presents an analysis of over  terms identified in literature from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reporting types of housing with services under the umbrella of 'service integrated housing' (SIH), defined as all forms of accommodation built specifically for older people in which the housing provider takes responsibility for delivery of one or more types of support and care services. A small number of generic terms covering housing for people in later life, home and community care, and institutional care are reviewed first to define the scope of SIH. Review of the remainder identifies different terms applied to similar types of SIH, similar terms applied to different types, and different terms that distinguish different types. Terms are grouped into those covering SIH focused on lifestyle and recreation, those offering only support services, and those offering care as well as support. Considerable commonality is found in underlying forms of SIH, and common themes emerge in discussion of drivers of growth and diversification, formal policies and programmes, and symbolic meanings. In establishing more commonality than difference, clarification of terminology advances policy debate, programme development, research and knowledge transfer within and between countries.KEY WORDSservice integrated housing, retirement villages, international comparative research, seniors' housing, housing for older people, care and support.

Turnover in the Australian aged-care workforce is lower than in the United States but is still of concern. This research examined the effects of worker satisfaction, worker characteristics, work conditions, and workplace environment on intention to leave, using data from a 2007 national census of the aged-care workforce. A probit model was used to estimate the probability of care workers leaving their jobs in the next 12 months. While workers were satisfied, overall, with their work, improving some components of satisfaction and converting casual contracts to permanent work would reduce intention to leave. To these ends, a shift in focus is required away from worker characteristics and the nature of care work to job conditions and organizational matters amenable to management and policy action.

Concerns about the capacity of the aged care industry to attract and retain a workforce with the skills required to deliver high quality care are widespread, but poor conceptualisation of the problem can result in strategies to address turnover being poorly targeted. A census of residential and community aged care services conducted by the National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS) in 2007 provided a comprehensive empirical account of the workforce, and estimated turnover on the basis of retention: that is, the proportion of the workforce who had been in their job for 1 year or less. This paper adds the dimension of intention: that is, workers' expectations as to whether in 1 year's time, they would still be working in the same aged care service. The dual driver model that takes both retention and intention into account was applied in further analysis of the 2007 NILS data. Investigation of relationships between workforce instability and 13 variables covering worker attributes, organisational attributes and structural attributes of the industry demonstrated the usefulness of the dual driver model for reconceptualising and analysing stability and, in turn, refining strategies to address turnover.

Discussion of the role of migrant care workers in long-term care (LTC) that has gained increasing attention in the United States and other developed countries in recent years is of particular relevance to Australia, where 24% of the total population is overseas-born, two-thirds of them coming from countries where English is not the primary language. Issues of interest arise regarding meeting LTC workforce demands in general and responding to the particular cultural and linguistic needs of postwar immigrants who are now reaching old age in increasing numbers. This review begins with an account of the overseas-born components of the aged care workforce and then examines this representation with reference to the four factors identified as shaping international flows of care workers in the comparative study carried out for the AARP Public Policy Institute in 2005: migration policies, LTC financing arrangements, worker recruitment and training, and credentialing. The ways in which these factors play out in Australia mean that while overseas-born workers are overrepresented in the LTC workforce, migrant care workers are not identifiable as a marginalized group experiencing disadvantage in employment conditions, nor do they offer a solution to workforce shortages. The Australian experience is different from those of other countries in many respects, but it does show that the experience of migrant care workers is not unique to LTC and points to the need to extend the search for solutions to workforce shortages and improving conditions of all care workers well beyond LTC systems to wider policy settings.

Research on family caregiving has been based largely on small samples, often drawn from support organisations or services, and has tended to focus on particular disability groups. Our study was population-based and included all ages and disabilities. As the first stage in a longitudinal research and health promotion program for informal caregivers, a statewide random survey of over 26 000 households was conducted by telephone: 78 per cent of self-identified carers ( N = 976) agreed to participate in a one-hour interview. This paper presents a sociodemographic profile of Australian caregivers. Four types of relationship between carers and care recipients (adult offspring, spouses, parents and other relatives and friends) provide the framework for results. Group differences were observed on most characteristics: for example, age, living arrangements, work status and duration of care. Care recipient characteristics, including difficult behaviours and need for assistance, are also reported, as well as use of and need for community services. What the findings reflected most was the heterogeneity of both caregivers and care recipients and the diversity of caregiving roles and circumstances. (Aust N Z J Public Health 1997; 21: 59-66) LTHOUGH the past two decades have seen a burgeoning of research interest in family A aregiving, methodological problems have