Family involvement in the institutional eldercare context. Towards a new understanding

Whitaker, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2008.12.006

Cited by 50 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Relatives' manoeuvring space and opportunities for involvement are thus intertwined and conditioned by their varying social positions. We further stress, in agreement with Whitaker () and Bauer and Nay (), that the motives of relatives for being involved are connected to a will to protect the integrity of nursing home residents and to provide the nursing staff with the residents' living stories. However, alluding to gendered generational power structures, one may also understand why the majority of those who care for their elderly relatives are women and that their involvement is not always natural and self‐selected.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Intersectional perspectives on family involvement in nursing home care: rethinking relatives' position as a betweenship

2013

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Intersectional perspectives on family involvement in nursing home care:Rethinking relatives' position as a betweenship ABSTRACT This study seeks to understand, in the context of intersectional theory, the roles of family members in nursing home care. The unique social locus at which each person sits is the result of the intersection of gender, status, ethnicity, class and is situational, shifting with the context of every encounter. A content analysis of 15 qualitative interviews with relatives of nursing home residents in Sweden was used to gain a perspective on the relationships between relatives and residents, relatives and the nursing home as an institution, and relatives and the nursing home staff. We sought to understand these relationships in terms of gendered notions of the family and the residents, which are handed down from generation to generation and thus condition who, and how, relatives should be involved in care, and the ways in which relationships change as care moves from home to nursing home. It requires knowledge and awareness that the nursing home culture is based on intersectional power structures in order for relatives to be involved in nursing home care in alternative and individual ways.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Intersectional perspectives on family involvement in nursing home care: rethinking relatives' position as a betweenship

2013

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“…However, she emphasizes the need for further research in order to develop a better understanding of the dynamics underlying complementarity. In line with Dahlberg's reasoning, other researchers have argued that neither the complementarity nor the substitution perspective fully captures the complex dynamics of unpaid activities carried out by citizens (Lingsom 1997; Jegermalm 2005; Jeppsson Grassman 2006; Whitaker 2009). To sum up, a welfare state perspective with a point of departure in the substitution argument would imply that cuts in welfare services ought to put more pressure on people to provide more informal help and care.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Patterns of Informal Help and Caregiving in Sweden: A Thirteen‐Year Perspective

Jegermalm

Grassman

2009

Soc Policy Adm

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This article analyses informal help and caregiving in Sweden with a focus on the scope and trends of change over time. The discussion is based on the results of three national surveys and of one survey conducted in the county of Stockholm. The results indicated that informal help and caregiving was common throughout the period under study. In the 1990s, the figures were fairly stable, while from the late 1990s to 2005 there seems to have been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of such support. Two interpretative perspectives are used to discuss this pattern. One locates its point of departure in recent welfare state changes and in the substitution argument, according to which cuts in welfare services put more pressure on people to provide informal help and care. The second perspective relates to the present debate on civil society and to its possible role in contemporary society. According to the civil society perspective, an increase in the prevalence of informal help and caregiving might be interpreted as an expression of growing civic involvement 'in its own right', without a straightforward and simple relationship to changes in the welfare state. It is argued in the article that the two frames of interpretation should not be viewed as mutually exclusive, but rather that they represent two partly complementary approaches to the understanding of the complex dynamics of unpaid work in contemporary Swedish society.

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“…Despite the assumption that the caregiving role is relinquished once an older person is placed into full‐time care, most family members remain deeply involved in and committed to maintaining the well‐being of the resident [1,2]. The acts of caring endure through visiting, monitoring care and well‐being, assistance with feeding, laundry and clothing maintenance, provision of mental stimulation, management of finances, and medical appointment arrangements and decisions [2,3]. Family members will try to maintain a sense of ‘personhood’ for their loved one and continuity of their relationship and life prior to placement [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the research regarding family experience with residential care undertaken to date has focused on family satisfaction with care in this setting, and the degree of involvement from the perspective of the family remains effectively unmeasured [7]. Traditional indicators of family involvement have been based on frequency of visits or the extent to which family contribute to instrumental caregiving tasks, neither of which accurately encapsulate what the relative contributes in the long‐term aged care setting [3]. However, if undertaken effectively, measures of family involvement and the importance of this involvement can provide specific information to organisations which they can respond to accordingly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%