Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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The older person as a client, customer or service user?
- Authors:
- CORLIN Tinna Elfstrand, KAZEMI Ali
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 24(1), 2020, pp.19-26.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe three different approaches to work in elderly care (i.e. professional, market-oriented and person-centred) and examine whether these theoretically derived approaches can be confirmed empirically. Additional aims were to examine the endorsement of these approaches and whether there were differences in the endorsement of these approaches in nursing home vs home care and municipality vs privately run care units. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey study of frontline care staff (n=1,342). Exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the empirical validity of the proposed approaches to work in elderly care. A series of paired and independent samples t-tests were conducted to analyse mean differences between the proposed approaches to work. Findings: A principal axis factoring analysis yielded three theoretically meaningful factors as proposed. These results indicated that the respondents were able to differentiate between three distinct but related approaches to work with older persons. The results also showed that the professional care approach was the highest endorsed and the market-oriented the lowest endorsed approach. No notable differences in approaches to work were observed in nursing home vs home care and municipality vs privately run care units. Originality/value: This is the first study to examine multiple approaches to work in elderly care as previous research studies mainly have investigated the person-centred care approach. Current findings indicate that these approaches to work often coexist in various combinations and that the care staff adopts all these approaches but to varying degrees. The approaches differ in several important respects (e.g. legitimacy and view of the older person) and most likely affect the way care staff treats the older person and how the older person perceives their relationship with the care staff. Knowledge about these differences facilitates management of the care staff’s work situation and helps to improve the quality of care. (Publisher abstract)
"The poor carer": ambivalent social construction of the home care worker in elder care services
- Authors:
- TIMONEN Virpi, LOLICH Luciana
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 62(7), 2019, pp.728-748.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This article examines the social construction of the home care worker from the perspective of various professionals in the elder care sector in Ireland. The research, using the Grounded Theory method, involved focus groups with 31 participants comprising health and social work professionals as well as care agency managers and policy planners. The social construction of the elder care worker is characterised by ambivalence. The authors connect the concept of ambivalence at the micro level of human relationships to structural factors that are driving the ambivalence. Ambivalence towards home care workers is shaped by structural factors including the precariousness of care work, the commodification of time, and the stipulated personalisation of services. The irreconcilable contrasts between portrayals of care workers as both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are indicative of deep contradictions in the expectations that contemporary care systems direct at paid caregivers. Ambivalence arises from the commodified and dispensable status of care workers, and fundamental transformations in their training, working conditions and pay are required to move away from this ambivalence and towards care workers’ equal status with professionals in the care sector. (Edited publisher abstract)
Paths to perdition: exploring the trajectories of care staff who have abused older people in their care
- Author:
- MOORE Steve
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Adult Protection, 21(3), 2019, pp.169-189.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present findings from face-to-face interviews with three former care staff who were proven to have abused some of the older people living in the care and nursing homes in which they had once worked. The research sought to explore the intra-personal dynamics, personal characteristics and work experiences that led these staff to perpetrate abuse. Findings: None of the three people interviewed had intended to become care staff and reported that the interview and induction processes they experienced did little to establish their suitability for the work they would be undertaking or to prepare them for its demands. Participants expressed their generally negative perceptions of older people, particularly those living with dementia, and told of how they also felt that they were under pressure to conform with the often abusive care home regimes that they had entered. They also recounted some specific abusive practices developed to allow them to manage the constant tension between the time available to complete all of the tasks required when “caring” for older people, and revealed their perceptions of external scrutiny of care home conduct and the behaviours developed to deflect the effectiveness of this oversight. Two interview participants also revealed their unfavourable attitudes to some of the people they were employed to care for that were based upon perceptions of ethnic differences, and of how this had contributed to the abuse they perpetrated. Research limitations/implications: Though the research draws upon the experiences of only three former care staff, the data reveal some of the intra-personal dimensions of individual staff who have engaged in abusive acts, and illuminates how the care home environment with which they interact can engender conditions under which abuse is more likely to occur. (Edited publisher abstract)
Squalor, chaos and feelings of disgust: care workers talk about older people with alcohol problems
- Authors:
- KARLSSON Lis Bodil, GUNNARSSON Evy
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 38(8), 2018, pp.1624-1644.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Older persons with alcohol problems have today become an all too common part of everyday elder care, but research in this area is still scarce. This article has a Swedish context with the aim of describing and analysing home care workers’ narratives about older people who can be characterised as heavy drinkers, i.e. people with severe alcohol problems who need considerable care for extended periods. Limited knowledge is available concerning this age group. This article therefore fills a knowledge gap about home care workers’ perspective about body work and the abject, and breaches the myth that older individuals should be able to drink as they prefer and/or notions of drinking alcohol as a last enjoyment in life. The care workers talked about how they got drawn into the daily lives of the care recipients and how they ended up in situations where they, on the one hand, removed the consequences of drinking, and on the other, felt that they sustained the drinking by cleaning out dirt and washing the care recipients’ bodies. (Edited publisher abstract)
Satisfaction and difficulties of French professional home caregivers in supporting older people with Alzheimer's disease or alcohol misuse
- Authors:
- MOSCATO Alba, VARESCON Isabelle
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 26(1), 2018, pp.27-34.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In France, few studies have examined home care when it comes to ageing support and even fewer have considered alcohol misuse in this context. The studies also show that being old and having alcohol use disorders are two unfavourable conditions for receiving help, whereas for the Alzheimer's disease, there is a clear need for optimal care. In this article, the authors study professional home caregiver's perceptions of their job along with their difficulties and satisfactions in supporting older people with Alzheimer's disease or alcohol misuse. Out of the 23 professionals approached, 17 took part in a research interview from October 2013 to January 2014. All interviews were recorded, fully transcribed and lexically analysed with Alceste® software. Among the five classes that were identified from 63% of the initial data, the main themes that emerged illustrate the nature of the associated pathologies, the perceptions and satisfactions related to the profession, their adaptive skills, the difficulties related to the life context of the older person, and the wine consumption of the latter. The lexical discourse analysis shows that the professional home caregivers are involved in looking after not only people with Alzheimer's disease but also those with alcohol misuse. However, despite the difficulties and satisfactions encountered, adaptation to the older people seems to be their priority and one of the many skills that they have acquired during their professionalisation. Most of the older people who are helped are women and the difficulties mentioned by their caregivers usually arise at the time of their death. Lastly, when caring for alcohol misusers, they describe negative attitudes in their support. Although research in this area is rare while home care for the older person, whatever the pathology, is increasing, professionals need to be supported by the associations or companies that employ them and should be trained to help them provide the appropriate care. (Edited publisher abstract)
Attitudes of family and professional care-givers towards the use of GPS for tracking patients with dementia: an exploratory study
- Authors:
- LANDAU R., et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 39(4), June 2009, pp.670-692.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This study examined the attitudes of family and professional care-givers in Israel towards the use of advanced electronic tracking such as GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) for elderly people with dementia. The study revealed four principal findings. First, care-givers' views ranged from feeling obligated to use the tracking device for the sake of patients' safety through support of the use of the device for the sake of the care-givers' peace of mind and restricted support, to objection to the use of the device and respect for a person's autonomy. Second, family care-givers showed higher support for the use of GPS and RFID both for their own peace of mind and for the safety of the elder in their care. Professionals attached higher value to respect for a person's autonomy and restricted support for using GPS and RFID. Third, both family and professional care-givers agreed that the decision on tracking dementia patients should be an intra-family issue. Fourth, family care-givers attached more importance to the tracking device's characteristics and design, thus emphasizing that the tracking device must be considered by them as ‘user-friendly’. The implications of the results for social work are also discussed.
Is it racism? Skepticism and resistance towards ethnic minority care workers among older care recipients
- Author:
- JONSON Hakan
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 49(4), 2007, pp.79-96.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Sweden has evolved into a multi-cultural society, and a significant proportion of those employed in the care of older people are born both outside Sweden and outside the European Union. For older native Swedes the receipt of care may involve their first extended encounters with people from ethnic minorities, and some react badly. This paper is based on interviews with 12 representatives of caring organisations, and three ethnic minority care workers. The former described hostility and resistance as rare, attributing it primarily to language difficulties or a temporary fear of the unknown. They adopted a pragmatic or pathologising approach that enabled them to collude with apparent racism: for example, complying with the demands of a client not to be cared for by an ethnic minority worker, in order to protect the worker; or rationalising hostile behaviour as ‘not really racism’ because of the client’s age or mental state. The latter view was also expressed by the three care workers, who nonetheless described a more widespread and severe problem of racism. The paper concludes by looking at how racism in elder care settings can be challenged while simultaneously taking into account the vulnerability of clients. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580).
Nurturing hope at the end of life
- Author:
- HUDSON Rosaline
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing International, 31(3), Summer 2006, pp.241-252.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
The article draws on the literature regarding end-of-life care to investigate what older people hope for as they reach the end of their lives and how professional carers can nurture that hope. A case study is included to highlight the differences between wishful thinking and hope.
Alcohol in care homes: what rules to play by?
- Author:
- MCCABE Louise
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Dementia Care, 15(1), January 2007, pp.34-36.
- Publisher:
- Hawker
The author reports on a study of four care homes in Scotland, and the management of alcohol within those homes. Care home residents included older people, people with dementia and people with alcohol related brain damage. The study revealed a variety of ways of managing alcohol consumption. It is argued that more training is needed if care homes are to respond consistently to this complex issue.
Caregiver physical and mental health predicts reactions to caregiving
- Authors:
- DE FRIAS C. M., TUOKKO H., ROSENBERG T.
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 9(4), July 2005, pp.331-336.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Self-reported health and reactions to providing care to older adults with cognitive or physical impairments were examined. Health status was examined on a single occasion in 177 persons (aged 63–94 years) referred to programs within a comprehensive set of geriatric care services and the 133 family members involved in their care (ages 31–96 years). The five-scale Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA) was administered to the family members. Reliability analyses revealed that the CRA had good internal consistency. Being older was related to experiencing greater health problems in the caregiver role. Greater health problems from providing care were reported by caregivers in worse physical health and also when the care recipient had more physical pain. Caregivers who reported fewer health problems attributed to caregiving reported better mental health and less depressive symptomatology. Caregivers with health problems may be at increased risk of suffering from stress from caregiving.