Tove Harnett
Docent
Affected by Social Services, as a Cohabiting Partner: The Case of Home Care
Författare
Summary, in English
To receive support from social services in one’s own home is a major life course transition for the client in need of help. But this is also a life changing transition for cohabitating partners, whose home is transformed to a workplace where staff come and go. Partners' perspectives have received a lot of attention in social work, but almost exclusively based on their relationship with the primary client. Examples include studies on partners as perpetrators, co-dependents, informal caregivers or family support. But partners are also personally affected when social work support is provided in the shared home: A transition from being a citizen and resident in a house or apartment to a form of secondary client.
The aim of this presentation is to discuss how cohabiting partners manage transitions from living in an ordinary home, to living in a home where home care is performed. Although the care arrangements are directed to their partner, partners need to fit such arrangements into their daily lives and need to take on new roles when interacting with home care staff.
Data consists of ten interviews with people who cohabit with a partner that receives home care, and additional participant observations in cases when care is performed.
Findings reveal that cohabitating partners develop relational, spatial and temporal strategies to deal with this transition. A broad theme that emerged in the analysis relates to power and control over the home as a private sphere that has become semi-public, with frequent visits by staff that were perceived as unpredictable, and with furniture and items like a care bed and a lift being brought into the bedroom. Adaptations included impression management tactics related to being “one’s best” in front of care staff, as well as adopting new routines for when to get out of bed, for how to dress in their own home and for how to create spatial integrity when staff come and go in the home. Relations constituted as second broad theme where staff could be seen as a type of visitors that the person had to engage with socially, and while some argued that this was tiring, especially when new staff visited, others regarded some staff-members as close friends and found these relations to be an important part of their lives.
By focusing on cohabitating partners’ roles and strategies, the presentation will shed new light on relational aspects of social work that takes place in the clients’ own home, and that affects those who are not the primary client.
The aim of this presentation is to discuss how cohabiting partners manage transitions from living in an ordinary home, to living in a home where home care is performed. Although the care arrangements are directed to their partner, partners need to fit such arrangements into their daily lives and need to take on new roles when interacting with home care staff.
Data consists of ten interviews with people who cohabit with a partner that receives home care, and additional participant observations in cases when care is performed.
Findings reveal that cohabitating partners develop relational, spatial and temporal strategies to deal with this transition. A broad theme that emerged in the analysis relates to power and control over the home as a private sphere that has become semi-public, with frequent visits by staff that were perceived as unpredictable, and with furniture and items like a care bed and a lift being brought into the bedroom. Adaptations included impression management tactics related to being “one’s best” in front of care staff, as well as adopting new routines for when to get out of bed, for how to dress in their own home and for how to create spatial integrity when staff come and go in the home. Relations constituted as second broad theme where staff could be seen as a type of visitors that the person had to engage with socially, and while some argued that this was tiring, especially when new staff visited, others regarded some staff-members as close friends and found these relations to be an important part of their lives.
By focusing on cohabitating partners’ roles and strategies, the presentation will shed new light on relational aspects of social work that takes place in the clients’ own home, and that affects those who are not the primary client.
Avdelning/ar
- Socialhögskolan
- Äldre och åldrande
- LU profilområde: Proaktivt åldrande
Publiceringsår
2024-04-18
Språk
Svenska
Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag: abstract
Ämne
- Social Work
Conference name
13th European Conference for Social Work Research
Conference date
2024-04-17 - 2024-04-19
Conference place
Vilnius, Lithuania
Aktiv
Published
Projekt
- Home care as integrated in older people’s lives: Developing a user-oriented perspective