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Moral choices and responsibilities: : The home-help service at the borderland of care management when older people consider relocation to a residential home

Söderberg, Maria LU (2020) In Ethics and Social Welfare 14(4). p.369-383
Abstract

The aim of this article is to reveal how care workers in the home-help services handle the process when older people’s relocation to a residential home is under consideration. Since the care workers are engaged daily in defining care receivers’ needs and yet have no formal influence on care decisions in Sweden, the focus is on how they solve this dilemma. In this inductive study, the theoretical framework is based on occupational alliances, relationship-based practice, and discretion. Thirty-three care workers in home-help services are included in open semi-structured interviews. Prominent features in the findings are that the care workers take their stand at the borderland of care management, when they know or try to find out what is... (More)

The aim of this article is to reveal how care workers in the home-help services handle the process when older people’s relocation to a residential home is under consideration. Since the care workers are engaged daily in defining care receivers’ needs and yet have no formal influence on care decisions in Sweden, the focus is on how they solve this dilemma. In this inductive study, the theoretical framework is based on occupational alliances, relationship-based practice, and discretion. Thirty-three care workers in home-help services are included in open semi-structured interviews. Prominent features in the findings are that the care workers take their stand at the borderland of care management, when they know or try to find out what is right. The conclusions drawn are that care workers find ways to informally influence the decision-making process, quite contrary to the idea of approaches referred to as purchaser/provider models. The implications for social work policy and practice are that a distinction between assessment and intervention may not benefit the field of eldercare and should therefore be regarded as an area in need of thorough reconsideration.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
care management, care work, Older people
in
Ethics and Social Welfare
volume
14
issue
4
pages
15 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85086935354
ISSN
1749-6535
DOI
10.1080/17496535.2020.1776749
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4575c3bc-9046-45d0-adac-60d8fac76636
date added to LUP
2020-07-13 10:00:26
date last changed
2022-04-18 23:25:53
@article{4575c3bc-9046-45d0-adac-60d8fac76636,
  abstract     = {{<p>The aim of this article is to reveal how care workers in the home-help services handle the process when older people’s relocation to a residential home is under consideration. Since the care workers are engaged daily in defining care receivers’ needs and yet have no formal influence on care decisions in Sweden, the focus is on how they solve this dilemma. In this inductive study, the theoretical framework is based on occupational alliances, relationship-based practice, and discretion. Thirty-three care workers in home-help services are included in open semi-structured interviews. Prominent features in the findings are that the care workers take their stand at the borderland of care management, when they know or try to find out what is right. The conclusions drawn are that care workers find ways to informally influence the decision-making process, quite contrary to the idea of approaches referred to as purchaser/provider models. The implications for social work policy and practice are that a distinction between assessment and intervention may not benefit the field of eldercare and should therefore be regarded as an area in need of thorough reconsideration.</p>}},
  author       = {{Söderberg, Maria}},
  issn         = {{1749-6535}},
  keywords     = {{care management; care work; Older people}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{369--383}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Ethics and Social Welfare}},
  title        = {{Moral choices and responsibilities: : The home-help service at the borderland of care management when older people consider relocation to a residential home}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2020.1776749}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/17496535.2020.1776749}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}