159 ČLANCI * Valentina Hlebec, Faculty of Social Sciences / Fakulteta za družbene vede, University of Ljubljana / Univerza v Ljubljani, Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia / Ljubljana, Slovenia, valentina.hlebec@fdv.uni-lj.si Care for the Elderly in Slovenia: A Combination of Informal and Formal Care VALENTINA HLEBEC * Izvorni znanstveni rad Faculty of Social Sciences UDK: 364.65-053.9(497.4) University of Ljubljana doi: 10.3935/rsp.v23i2.1317 Ljubljana, Slovenia Primljeno: kolovoz 2015. ANDREJ SRAKAR BORIS MAJCEN Institute for Economic Research Ljubljana, Slovenia Most care provided to the elderly living at home comes from informal caregivers: family members, friends and neighbours. With the development of community services such as community healthcare, personal lifeline systems for the elderly or the panic button, home care and similar, informal care is enhanced by formal community forms of care. The data from the SHARE (Sur- vey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) survey was used to estimate the number of people (over 65 years old) who receive an individual type of care (no care, only informal care, only formal care, a combination of the two), as well as the number of people who need care, but fail to receive it. The multinomial logistic regression method was also used to evaluate the factors that influence the type of care. Similar to other European countries, the need and the availability of informal caregivers have the strongest influence on the type of care, whereas the distribution of types of care mostly resembles Mediterranean countries. Key words: elderly, care models, informal care, formal care, mixed care, SHARE, Andersen’s behavioural model. INTRODUCTION The aging population, the changes in the sizes and forms of families (Rener et al., 2006) and the fact that most dependent older people are cared for by their closest family members (Allen et al., 1999; Hvalič Touzery, 2009), has introduced complex questions as regards the provision of care for the older people in the new social poli- cies and research. Due to the increasing retirement age, the decline in the average