The social organization of assistance in multilingual interaction in Swedish residential care

Abstract

In this article, we explore the organization of assistance in multilingual interaction in Swedish residential care. The data that form the basis for the study cover care encounters involving three residents with a language background other than Swedish, totalling 13 hours and 14 minutes of video documentation. The empirical data consists of a collection of 134 instances where residents seek assistance with the realization of a practical action. For this article, three examples that involve the manipulation of an object have been selected for analysis. We use the concept of ‘recruitment’ to encompass the various methods by which assistance is sought in the care encounter. In the first example, the need for assistance concerns the transfer of an object that is recognizable and physically available for both participants. This, in combination with the resident’s gestural work that pinpoints the description of the action, facilitates its realization. In the second and third examples, the realization of the action becomes more difficult because the object involved is not recognizable for the caregiver. The article highlights the collaborative ways in which residents manage to support their talk through bodily practices, and the strong and empathetic engagement with which caregivers become involved in interpreting the meaning of these practices. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for care provision in multilingual circumstances.

Multilingual Life in Dementia Care : Crossing Linguistic Boundaries and Cognitive Gap: Navigating Mutual Understanding

“…These studies' foci are mostly on activities that can be placed in the category of task-oriented communication. Two common issues in task-oriented communication include managing residents' complains as well as addressing residents' requests Jansson, 2016;Jansson & Wadensjö, 2016a;Jansson et al, 2019).…”

“…Having common ground with residents means the care worker can address the source of the trouble even though they may not have access to the actual content of the residents' utterances . The care worker who has acquainted herself with the resident and has the knowledge of her routines, can also mediate between her colleagues who do not share common language with the resident Jansson et al, 2019). This advantage is not necessarily related to a shared language, as the mediator can be a care worker who has very limited shared spoken language with the resident Jansson et al, 2019).…”

“…The care worker who has acquainted herself with the resident and has the knowledge of her routines, can also mediate between her colleagues who do not share common language with the resident Jansson et al, 2019). This advantage is not necessarily related to a shared language, as the mediator can be a care worker who has very limited shared spoken language with the resident Jansson et al, 2019). A care worker, as a mediator, can intervene in managing moments of conflict and resident's distress .…”

‘I’m calling in regard to my son’: Entitlement, obligation, and opportunity to seek help for others

“…Participants also orient to entitlement and obligation through the ways they build and interpret requests for help. Interactional research has documented how help can be accomplished in different ways (Drew & Couper-Kuhlen, 2014), from direct requests and narrative descriptions (Fox & Heinemann, 2016;Zimmerman, 1992), to reports of trouble or embodied displays (Drew & Kendrick, 2018;Jansson, Plejert, & Lindholm, 2019). These different methods of help-seeking configure self-other relations differently.…”

The ‘Other’ side of recruitment: Methods of assistance in social interaction

“…Rather than beginning with vernacular actions such as offers or requests and examining their implementation, research on the recruitment of assistance begins with a social organizational problem: how do participants in interaction recognize and resolve troubles that emerge in practical courses of action (Kendrick & Drew, 2016, p. 2)? Studies of recruitment have investigated various ways in which participants in social interaction solicit, elicit, and provide assistance (Floyd et al, 2014;Drew & Couper-Kuhlen, 2014;Kendrick & Drew, 2016;Drew & Kendrick, 2018;Jansson et al, 2019;Floyd, Rossi, & Enfield, 2020;Kendrick & Drew, in prep.). Kendrick and Drew (2016) identified a continuum of methods employed by one who experiences a trouble, difficulty, or need, Self, that have as a possible outcome or effect the recruitment of assistance by Other(s).…”