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- Andréasson, Frida
(författare)
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Doing informal care : Identity, couplehood, social health and information and communication technologies in older people’s everyday lives
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis has been a) to analyse how informal care influences the identity of carers and care recipients, their sense of couplehood and social health, and b) to explore the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the context of informal care and the everyday lives of older people. Study I focused on how older carers conceptualised their identity as carers on a Swedish online social forum, using a netnographic methodology. The findings indicated a change in self-perception as the carer role was acquired. Carers’ capacities were filtered through the needs of the care recipient, making their carer identities into invisible selves. The findings revealed that online communication had the potential to create a virtual space of social recognition. Study II aimed to reflect on carers’ experiences of participation in a co-design process consisting of user group sessions with carers and researchers. The goal was to develop a web-based support programme for carers. The findings emphasised a need to consider carers’ lifeworlds and to develop flexible human-centred design methodologies, that are able to balance carers’ needs and ideas with proposed research outcomes. Studies III and IV utilised an ethnographic methodology. In study III, the notion of couplehood in informal care was analysed. The findings showed that in the process of becoming a carer and a care recipient previous (often gendered) responsibilities were re- negotiated and new practicalities emerged. Although these changes were understood as a natural part of family life, they nevertheless led to changes in the (power) balance between spouses, expressed in terms of a professionalised relationship and a sense of social isolation. ICT was used as a means to get a respite from caring and uphold a social connection with others. In study IV, the social implications and consequences of spousal informal care and carers and care recipients’ experiences of illness and the ill body was explored. The findings showed that the participants experienced barriers to living life as before. Thoughts about or the presence of ill and “leaking” bodies thus lead to “self-chosen” social isolation or social distancing by others. The thesis highlights that informal care needs to be understood as an identity forming practice, having a significant impact on involved parties’ sense of couplehood, their social health and that ICT can contribute to ease carers’ and care recipients’ daily life.
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| 2. |
- Strandell, Rebecka, 1987-
(författare)
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Omsorgsarbete i hemtjänsten : – förändringar, utmaningar och möjligheter
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the work situation in Swedish homecare from the perspective of care workers. In recent decades, the eldercare sector has faced challenges related to organisational changes and difficulties with retaining and recruiting staff. Due to an ageing population, increasing needs for care and a decline in residential care there has been an increased focus on ageing-in-place policies. Homecare is thus an increasingly important part of eldercare, both in Sweden and in other Western countries.The thesis consists of four studies that explore and analyse different aspects of the work situation in Swedish homecare. The empirical material consists of both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative part of the thesis derives from survey-data (Nordcare) from 2005 and 2015, whilst the qualitative material consists of 11 group interviews with 64 homecare workers. Theoretically, the thesis draws upon feminist perspectives on care work. In order to deepen the analysis of the work situation in homecare, the thesis joins work-life oriented research with feminist care research. The results are related to and analysed against the backdrop of recent structural changes and reorganisations in the eldercare sector.Study I shows that the work situation in Swedish home care has deteriorated between 2005 and 2015, both regarding intensification of work and the occurrence of work-related problems. For example, workers in 2015 reported meeting a larger number of recipients per day, receiving less support from their supervisor and colleagues, and having considerably less autonomy to affect the planning of their daily work. Study II illustrates geographical differences regarding homecare workers experiences of their work situation. Staff in larger cities experience worse working conditions and more mental strain, but better employments conditions, work-time arrangements and work-life balance, compared to those working in rural areas. Study III shows that homecare workers in Sweden experience a high level of multidimensional precariousness, and that several of the problematic working conditions are associated with physical strain, mental strain, poor work-life balance and considerations to quit the job. The main results of study IV are that the workers attribute their experiences of time pressure to the compression of time, the control of time and the unpredictability of time. Strategies adopted by the workers to handle time pressure include working unpaid hours, maximising efficiency, and reallocating time. Thus, the workers mainly adopt individual and short-term strategies to deal with time pressure, with potential negative consequences for both the workers and the care recipients.Overall, this thesis shows that the work situation in Swedish homecare has deteriorated over time and is characterised by several problematic employment- and working conditions, over a range of dimensions, with negative consequences for the workers’ health and wellbeing. The accumulation of work-related problems and multidimensional precariousness experienced by the workers strongly indicate that there is no easy solution to the issues experienced by the homecare workers, calling for wide-ranging political and organisational responses.
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