Embodying Inequality

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.

Working Conditions in Home Care: Negotiating Race and Class Boundaries in Gendered Work

1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila M. Neysmith ◽  
Jane Aronson
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Home Care Workers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Case Basis

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.

Social Workers’ Attempts to Navigate Among the Elderly, Their Families, and Foreign Home Care Workers in the Haredi Community

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 617-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anat Freund ◽  
Tova Band-Winterstein
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Barriers And Challenges ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological ◽  
Cultural Bridge ◽  
Home Care Workers

Background: The study’s aim is to examine social workers’ experience in facilitating the integration of foreign home care workers (FHCWs) into the ultraorthodox Jewish (UOJ) community for the purpose of treating older adults. Method: Using the qualitative-phenomenological approach, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 social workers in daily contact with UOJ older adult clients in the process of integrating FHCWs. Results: Data analysis revealed three central themes—integrating FHCWs into the aging UOJ family: barriers and challenges in the interaction between the two worlds; “even the rabbi has a FHCW”: changing trends in caring for older adults; and the social worker as mediator and facilitator of a successful relationship. Discussion: Social workers play a central role, serving as a cultural bridge in the process of integrating FHCWs, as a way of addressing the needs of ultraorthodox elderly and their families, while also considering the needs of the foreign workers.

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

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Barken ◽  
Margaret Denton ◽  
Jennifer Plenderleith ◽  
Isik U. Zeytinoglu ◽  
Catherine Brookman
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Task Shifting ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Home Care Workers

scholarly journals Using a Reflective Diary Method to Investigate the Experiences of Paid Home Care Workers Caring for People With Dementia

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Travers ◽  
Justine Schneider ◽  
Lucy Perry-Young ◽  
Samantha Wilkinson ◽  
Kezia Scales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Care Organization ◽  
Diary Method ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Hourly Rate ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Home Care Workers ◽  
And Training

This article reports on the use of an innovative reflective diary method with paid home care workers caring for people with dementia. It examines the key features of the diary design, recruitment and training of participants, diarists’ approaches and responses to diary-keeping, and evaluates the use of diaries in this context. Following training, 11 volunteers (all female) employed by a U.K.-based home care organization kept diaries of their experiences of caring for those with dementia. Using specially designed diaries, they wrote about their visits to clients for a period of approximately 4 months and were remunerated for up to 16 extra hours at their usual hourly rate of pay. Overall, home care workers engaged well with the process, keeping regular, lengthy, timely, and reflective diary entries. Diary-keeping provided a means for these workers to express their emotions about their work, while enhancing their self-insight and care practices. We demonstrate the feasibility of diaries for research with this occupational group and conclude that the written reflexivity employed in diaries can document, enrich, and improve the work of these caregivers.

Becoming a Home Care Worker: Job-Seekers’ Push and Pull Factors

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Shinan-Altman ◽  
Varda Soskolne ◽  
Liat Ayalon
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Pull Factors ◽  
Push And Pull Factors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Home Care Workers ◽  
Push And Pull

This study examined “push and pull” factors associated with the decision to become home care workers among job-seekers in Israel. Participants completed measures of ageism, anxiety about aging, attitudes toward the home care profession, and personal relationship with older adults. Of 1,492 participants, 32.0% accepted the offer to become home care workers and were no longer in the job market, 36.7% accepted the offer but worked in the past, and 31.2% refused the offer. Compared to participants currently employed, the odds of being employed in the past were higher for participants who were younger, with poorer health and higher ageism; the odds of refusal were higher for males, Arabs, younger participants, with more education, lower ageism, and fewer personal relationship with older adults. The findings have implications for practice with job-seekers and for retaining current home care workers in the field. This may assist in expanding the home care workforce.

Abuse is in the eyes of the beholder: using multiple perspectives to evaluate elder mistreatment under round-the-clock foreign home carers in Israel

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
LIAT AYALON
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Elder Abuse ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Elder Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Care Recipients ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Home Care Workers

ABSTRACTThe overall goal of the study reported in this paper was to examine differences in the perceived occurrence of abuse and neglect as between older care recipients, their family carers, and foreign home-care workers in Israel. Overall, 148 matched family members and foreign home-care workers and 75 care recipients completed a survey of abuse and neglect. Significant discrepancies in their reports of neglect were found, with the foreign home-care workers more likely to identify neglect (66%) than the older adults (27.7%) or their family members (29.5%). Although the rates of reported abuse ranged between 16.4 and 20.7 per cent and the differences were not statistically significant, the different parties assigned the responsibility for the abuse to different perpetrators. The independent variables that significantly associated with abuse and neglect also varied by the three groups of participants. The findings suggest that even with round-the-clock home care, the basic needs of many older adults are not met, and that many experience substantial abuse. The study emphasises the subjective nature of abuse and neglect, and suggests that more education about what constitutes elder abuse and neglect may lead to more accurate and consistent reports across reporting sources. Incorporating data from the various stakeholders may enhance the early identification of elder abuse and neglect.

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

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-357 ◽  
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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