Care work in different arenas: Working conditions in Swedish eldercare and disability services

Abstract

Care work is shaped by the context in which it is carried out. This study explored the context, content, conditions and consequences of work in two fields of social care in Sweden: eldercare and disability services. Policy documents and statistical sources were used to analyse the context. Job content, working conditions and consequences of work were analysed using survey data collected in 2015 and 2017 in eldercare and disability services (N = 1307). The analysis of the political and economic context showed that the disability sector is characterised by a higher ambition level in legislation and funding. The survey of care workers reflected this difference: the work content differs; and the working conditions and their consequences are significantly worse for the eldercare staff than for the disability service staff. Possible explanations for these differences are discussed in terms of policy‐framing, ageist notions and unintended consequences of policy changes.

The use of home care as relational work: outlines for a research programme

“…Services range from help with personal hygiene, taking medication, and getting dressed to cleaning, laundry, social support, and outdoor walks. Swedish home care has increasingly been subject to cutbacks, marketization, and a new public management-inspired assembly line logic (Erlandsson & Szebehely, 2023 ; Szebehely & Meagher, 2018 ), where service provision is characterized by minutely planned intervention schedules, a stressful work environment, and large staff turnover with widespread discontent among care workers. Care users must navigate the welfare system, including home care services and greater assistance from private companies, transportation services, healthcare, and other agents of the welfare state.…”