The United Kingdom and the Netherlands differ significantly with respect to structure, policy, legislation and financing of their care delivery systems. Day care services for elderly people thus developed in considerably different policy and socio-historical contexts. In this article various aspects of day care in the two countries are compared. The most marked distinctions between the countries concern supply and distribution of services. The practice of day care, however, appears to be very similar, as indicated by similar objectives, care and activities, staffing and premises, and demographic, social and medical characteristics of users. Some differences are noted concerning problems with transport and organisational linkages of day care services. It is concluded that the supply and distribution of services are largely determined by government policy and that design, quality and day-today practice are primarily a consequence of professional standards and the needs of users and their relatives. Further, a new conceptualisation of day care is advocated: different terminology, more flexibility and a wider range of activities. Finally, the future contributions of day care within both countries' policy contexts are discussed.

There is some evidence in the literature of increased demand on health services by adults with psychiatric morbidity. Among people over retirement age these associations appear weaker. Results from three independent, but comparable, surveys of elderly people living in London and Essex are presented in relation to their use of health and social services. Psychiatric morbidity was found to be a poor predictor of service use. Level of functional ability and, in some cases, age were both stronger predictors of use of a selection of these services among the two samples from the urban area. Age was a stronger predictor of use of home help and meals on wheels services among the younger urban sample aged 65–85. The model had little explanatory power in relation to use of general practitioner services. The study also indicated that the semi-rural sample had better reported health status and functional ability than the samples in the urban area. Use of health and social services was also lower in the semi-rural areas.

Although several authors have speculated about the type of relationship between informal and formal care, relatively little empirical work directly examines the interface between the two support systems. This paper examines the correlates of using neither system, only one system and several combinations of both systems. It explores the characteristics of those who do and do not make complementary use of both systems and under what circumstances the two systems are complementary. Multivariate analyses are performed, using logistic regression analyses, to examine the correlates of the different sources of support. Analyses demonstrate that those who utilize the formal care system do so while retaining care from the informal network. Use of the formal system in conjunction with informal care appears to take place in two instances:when seniors are in need and critical elements of their informal network are lacking, or when they have an intact informal support network, but their health needs are extremely high. In both of these instances the formal system enters to assist the informal network. The data point to the complementarity of the two care systems, not in terms of task specificity, but rather, in terms of a sharing of overall task load.

The economic participation rates of older men have fallen dramatically over the last decade. Early retirements have accounted for much although not all of this reduction and yet early retirement has been a somewhat neglected aspect of the social scientific literature. Initially the prerogative of managers and white-collar workers, early retirement has spread to wider sections of the work force and has generally been seen by managers and trade unions as an uncontentious way of achieving ‘headcount reduction'. Research into the experiences of early retirees is sparse but such survey data as does exist suggests relatively high levels of satisfaction. This paper presents some of the findings of a small, qualitative study of the experience of early retirement from the chemical industry of a sample of 40 men from the West Riding of Yorkshire. An attempt was made to construct a quality-of-life index with which to compare and contrast their experiences and investigate some of the major factors in determining the outcome of early retirement. The paper highlights the role of further paid work in enabling healthy men with marketable skills to effectively negotiate their own ‘flexible retirements’. Those with ill health and a lack of skills were unable to do this and these factors were associated with a relatively low quality of life.