Home Care Workers’ Skills in the Context of Task Shifting: Complexities in Care Work

Home care work in metropolitan areas is a source of employment for immigrant women of color. Service work of this type intertwines domestic and caring labor in ways that reinforce the historically gendered and racialized nature of the work. Such macro level economic and political issues are played out at the micro level of daily service provided within elderly clients' homes. A study of these processes in home care work was carried out in urban southern Ontario in two nonprofit home care agencies. In-depth interviews and focus groups held with visible minority home care workers suggested that workers deal daily with racist attitudes and behaviors from clients and their families; agencies recognize these oppressive processes but usually handle them on a case-by-case basis through supervisors; and home care workers handle racism on the job as they do in their off-work hours—by avoidance, situating incidents within an analysis of the circumstances of elderly clients, setting boundaries on discussions, and occasionally, confrontation.

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Embodying Inequality

Inequalities of Aging ◽

10.18574/nyu/9781479810734.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 126-150

Author(s):

Elana D. Buch

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Home Care ◽

Care Work ◽

Social Hierarchies ◽

Care Workers ◽

Care Practices ◽

Home Care Workers ◽

Embodied Care

This chapter analyzes the embodied care practices at the center of home care work. The chapter argues that these practices generate deep but fragile entanglements between the lives and bodies of older adults and those of their home care workers. These practices involve forms of empathy that blur the boundaries between older adults’ and home care workers’ bodies and their personhoods. I show how home care transforms seemingly straightforward tasks like cooking into moral practices that help older adults feel independent. Home care workers’ bodies become the ground upon which moral hierarchies between persons are built, experienced, and justified on a day-to-day basis. Daily home care practices generate ways of embodying social hierarchies and shape individual subjectivities, thereby making those hierarchies feel morally legitimate.

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Job Stress and Job Dissatisfaction of Home Care Workers in the Context of Health Care Restructuring

International Journal of Health Services ◽

10.2190/vyn8-6nky-rkum-l0xw ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 327-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 95

Author(s):

Margaret Denton ◽

Isik Urla Zeytinoglu ◽

Sharon Davies ◽

Jason Lian

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Organizational Change ◽

Home Care ◽

Job Stress ◽

Peer Support ◽

Organizational Support ◽

Job Dissatisfaction ◽

Care Work ◽

Care Workers ◽

Home Care Workers

Changes in the social organization of home care work due to health care restructuring have affected the job stress and job dissatisfaction of home care workers. This article reports the results of a survey of 892 employees from three nonprofit home care agencies in a medium-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Survey results are complemented by data from 16 focus groups with 99 employees. For the purposes of this study, home care workers include both office workers (managers, supervisors, coordinators, office support staff, and case managers) and visiting workers (nurses, therapists, and visiting homemakers). Focus group participants indicated that health care restructuring has resulted in organizational change, budget cuts, heavier workloads, job insecurity, loss of organizational support, loss of peer support, and loss of time to provide emotional laboring, or the “caring” aspects of home care work. Analyses of survey data show that organizational change, fear of job loss, heavy workloads, and lack of organizational and peer support lead to increased job stress and decreased levels of job satisfaction.

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Ethno-cultural diversity in home care work in Canada

International Journal of Ageing and Later Life ◽

10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.105277 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 77-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Anne Martin-Matthews ◽

Joanie Sims-Gould ◽

John Naslund

Keyword(s):

Home Care ◽

Cultural Diversity ◽

Daily Living ◽

Mixed Methods Study ◽

Care Work ◽

Immigrant Workers ◽

Foreign Born ◽

Care Workers ◽

Negative Context ◽

Home Care Workers

Worldwide, immigrant workers are responsible for much of the care provided to elderly people who require assistance with personal care and with activities of daily living. This article examines the characteristics of immigrant home care workers, and the ways in which they differ from non-migrant care workers in Canada. It considers circumstances wherein the labor of care is framed by ethno-cultural diversity between client and worker, interactions that reflect the character of this ethno-cultural diversity, and the strategies employed by workers to address issues related to this diversity. Findings from a mixed methods study of 118 workers in the metropolitan area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, indicate that while the discriminatory context surrounding migrant home care workers persists, issues of ethno-cultural diversity in relationships are complex, and can also involve non-foreign born workers. Multi-cultural home care is not always framed in a negative context, and there often are positive aspects.

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The Effects of Social Support on the psychological Well-being of In-Home Care Workers : With a focus on the mediating effects of job satisfaction

Korea Academy of Care Management ◽

10.22589/kaocm.2019.31.5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 ◽

pp. 5-28

Author(s):

Seong Min Lee

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Job Satisfaction ◽

Home Care ◽

Well Being ◽

Mediating Effects ◽

Psychological Well Being ◽

Care Workers ◽

Home Care Workers

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“Then They Trust You …”

NEW SOLUTIONS A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy ◽

10.1177/1048291117712544 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 225-245 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Marsha Love ◽

Felipe Tendick-Matesanz ◽

Jane Thomason ◽

Davine Carter ◽

Myra Glassman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Care ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Care Needs ◽

Term Care ◽

Team Members ◽

Physical Independence ◽

Care Workers ◽

Communications Skills ◽

Home Care Workers

The home care workforce, already at 2.7 million caregivers, will become the nation’s fastest growing occupation by 2024 as the senior boom generation accelerates the demand for in home services to meet its long-term care needs. The physically challenging work of assisting clients with intimate, essential acts of daily living places home care workers (HCWs) at risk for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs); yet, HCWs typically receive little formal job training and may lack appropriate assistive devices. In this qualitative pilot study, HCW focus groups described workplace MSD risk factors and identified problem-solving strategies to improve ergonomic conditions. The results revealed that HCWs rely on their behavioral insights, self-styled communications skills and caring demeanor to navigate MSD risks to themselves and increase clients’ physical independence of movement. We suggest changes in employer and government policies to acknowledge HCWs as valued team members in long-term care and to enhance their effectiveness as caregivers.

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