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Caregivers as managers of subjective wellbeing: a homeostatic perspective
- Author:
- CUMMINS Robert A.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 18(4), December 2005, pp.335-344.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This paper proposes that the adequacy of service delivery and caregiving to people who are disabled should be assessed using two criteria. One is the objective circumstance of living, which should be at a standard acceptable to the community at large. The other is a level of subjective wellbeing (SWB) within the normal range. This latter criterion is based on an understanding that SWB is homeostatically managed to lie normally within a narrow range of values. Results found that people who have a disability are more likely than usual to have a fragile homeostatic system because of the additional life challenges imposed by their disability. It concludes that the role of a caregiver is to provide resources and protection against strong threats to homeostasis, thereby ensuring that the person in their care has a normal-range level of SWB.