The (im)mobility of masculinities: discourses on hiring men in long-term care services in Catalonia

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireia Roca Escoda ◽  
Yolanda Bodoque Puerta

The presence of male job seekers in the long-term care sector poses new challenges for organizations operating in this environment. We take a qualitative approach to analyze the discourses and practices applied by managers of long-term care services in relation to hiring men in their organizations. In this analysis we explore how masculinities are mobilized and whether the growing male presence has brought about changes in hiring requirements in terms of gender. The growing number of professionally trained male carers who are willing to work in direct care settings does not, at the moment, seem to be a factor that alters or challenges organizational hiring requirements. We introduce the concept of (im)mobilization of masculinities to illustrate how, although care service organizations’ recruitment practices do mobilize idealized and alternative conceptions of masculinity, hiring men is not their priority. These practices help to reproduce gender inequalities in the long-term care sector.

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
Eleanor D. Kinney ◽  
Jay A. Freedman ◽  
Cynthia A. Loveland Cook

Community-based, long-term care has become an increasingly popular and needed service for the aged and disabled populations in recent years. These services witnessed a major expansion in 1981 when Congress created the Home and Community-Based Waiver authority for the Medicaid program. Currently, all states offer some complement of community-based, long-term care services to their elderly and disabled populations and nearly all states have Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waivers which extend these services to their Medicaid eligible clients.An ever increasing proportion of the population is in need of community-based, long-term care services. Between nine and eleven million Americans of all ages are chronically disabled and require some help with tasks of daily living. In 1990, thirty percent of the elderly with at least one impaired activity of daily living used a community-based, long-term care service. Not surprisingly, expenditures for community-based, long-term care have increased.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanbing Zeng ◽  
Lixia Wang ◽  
Liangwen Zhang ◽  
Ya Fang

Abstract Background: Estimates of unmet needs, as an indicator of future needs for long-term care (LTC) services, have become increasingly crucial policy concerns. This study aimed to examine the urban-rural differences in unmet needs and the demand for community care service among community-dwelling elderly people in China. Methods: The data come from the 2014 Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey (CLHLS). A total of 1587 community residents aged 65+ with disabilities in the activities of daily living (ADLs) were included in this study. Based on the Andersen theoretical model, binary logistic regression was used to estimate the correlates of unmet needs in LTC. A chi-square test was used to examine the differences in expected needs for community-based LTC services between urban and rural areas. Results: Over half (55.07%) of the participants reported their needs were unmet. Poor economic status and reluctant caregivers seriously affected elderly unmet needs. Among urban older adults, those who were male and lonely reported more unmet needs. Among rural ones, those with severe ADL disability and poor self-rated health reported more unmet needs. In addition, access to medication and home visit services were negatively associated with unmet needs. Living with children (69.12%) was viewed as the most desirable living arrangement among older adults, while living in a LTC facility seemed to be more accepted for rural residents with unmet needs than for other elderly respondents. Residents showed a high demand for community LTC care services, with 82.55% of them expecting to need home visits and 74.29% to healthcare education. Specifically, rural residents had greater expected needs for every community care service than their urban counterparts. However, only 4.66% to 36.42% of the respondents reported that all eight types of services were available, which was far below the demand for these services. Conclusion: The risk of having unmet LTC needs is largely determined by elderly people’s economic status and caregivers’ willingness to provide care for both rural and urban elderly residents. More attention should be paid to psychological consulting services in urban areas, as well as personal care, home visits, psychological consulting and healthcare education services in rural areas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Y. P. Tsang ◽  
C. H. Wu ◽  
Polly P. L. Leung ◽  
W. H. Ip ◽  
W. K. Ching

Due to the global ageing population, the increasing demand for long-term care services for the elderly has directed considerable attention towards the renovation of nursing homes. Although nursing homes play an essential role within residential elderly care, professional shortages have created serious pressure on the elderly service sector. Effective workforce planning is vital for improving the efficacy and workload balance of existing nursing staff in today’s complex and volatile long-term care service market. Currently, there is lack of an integrated solution to monitor care services and determine the optimal nursing staffing strategy in nursing homes. This study addresses the above challenge through the formulation of nursing staffing optimisation under the blockchain-internet of things (BIoT) environment. Embedding a blockchain into IoT establishes the long-term care platform for the elderly and care workers, thereby decentralising long-term care information in the nursing home network to achieve effective care service monitoring. Moreover, such information is further utilised to optimise nursing staffing by using a genetic algorithm. A case study of a Hong Kong nursing home was conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed system. We found that the total monthly staffing cost after using the proposed model was significantly lower than the existing practice with a change of −13.48%, which considers the use of heterogeneous workforce and temporary staff. Besides, the care monitoring and staffing flexibility are further enhanced, in which the concept of skill substitution is integrated in nursing staffing optimisation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 159-159
Author(s):  
Janette Dill ◽  
Bianca Frogner

Abstract The crisis of COVID-19 in long-term care services and supports (LTSS) has brought attention to challenges in staffing long-term care organizations, as shortages of direct care workers led to a dramatic inability to provide needed care for many residents in nursing homes and other residential care settings. In this study, we examine unemployment among LTSS direct care workers during the crisis and recovery. This study uses monthly data from January 2019 to December 2020 from the Current Population Survey, a monthly household survey collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and we compare an individual’s 2019 monthly employment patterns to their 2020 monthly employment. Long-term care workers had an unemployment rate of 2.8% in April 2020, when unemployment rates in the US reached a peak; however, new unemployment among long-term care workers has not declined as consistently as in other settings. Female health care workers were significantly more likely to be unemployed compared to their male counterparts, a trend that is consistent with the overall economy, and workers who earned the lowest wages were more likely to have transitioned to unemployment. COVID-19 has added significant complexity to the provision of direct care services, making LTSS a hazardous place to work. Concerns remain about unemployment in long-term care where demand for workers remains high; additional measures need to be taken to ensure that direct care workers have the resources they need to remain employed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shogo Kato ◽  
Satoko Tsuru ◽  
Yoshinori Iizuka

The establishment of a system for providing appropriate long-term care services for older people is a national issue in Japan, and it will likely become a worldwide issue in the years to come. Under Japanese Long-term Care Insurance System, long-term care is provided based on long-term care programs, which were designed by care providers on the basis of long-term care service plans, which were designed by care managers. However, defined methodology for designing long-term care service plans and care programs has not been established yet. In this paper, we propose models for designing long-term care service plans and care programs for older people, both by incorporating the technical issues from previous studies and by redesigning the total methodology according to these studies. Our implementation model consists of “Function,” “Knowledge Structure,” and “Action Flow.” In addition, we developed the concrete knowledgebases based on the Knowledge Structure by visualizing, summarizing, and structuring the inherent knowledge of healthcare/welfare professionals. As the results of the workshop and retrospective verification, the adequacy of the models was suggested, while some further issues were pointed. Our models, knowledgebases, and application make it possible to ensure the quality of long-term care for older people.


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