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Home alone : the experiences of home support workers in a climate of health care reform Aitken, Jennifer Allison
Abstract
The transition from institutional to home based health care relies heavily on the caring work of Home Support Workers (HSWs). Despite the importance of their labor, HSWs are under paid, under valued and misunderstood. Policy guiding home based care does little to alleviate this paradox. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve understanding about the ways home care policy impacts the caring experience. The question posed is, What are the experiences of Home Support Workers providing care to cognitively impaired elderly people in the community? A feminist approach is applied in this qualitative study. Unstructured, interviews conducted with a sample of three HSWs where succeeded by a focus group of leaders in the home support industry. Findings reveal an emotional component to their caring work which is hidden and unrecognized. A model for integrating HSWs into the interdisciplinary care team is proposed. Limitations of the study and future research are discussed. The timeliness of this topic, and the critical inequities inherent in the home support industry makes this study particularly relevant to social work.
Item Metadata
Title |
Home alone : the experiences of home support workers in a climate of health care reform
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1998
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Description |
The transition from institutional to home based health care relies
heavily on the caring work of Home Support Workers (HSWs).
Despite the importance of their labor, HSWs are under paid, under
valued and misunderstood. Policy guiding home based care does
little to alleviate this paradox.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve understanding
about the ways home care policy impacts the caring experience.
The question posed is, What are the experiences of Home Support
Workers providing care to cognitively impaired elderly people in
the community?
A feminist approach is applied in this qualitative study.
Unstructured, interviews conducted with a sample of three HSWs
where succeeded by a focus group of leaders in the home support
industry. Findings reveal an emotional component to their caring
work which is hidden and unrecognized. A model for integrating
HSWs into the interdisciplinary care team is proposed.
Limitations of the study and future research are discussed. The
timeliness of this topic, and the critical inequities inherent in the
home support industry makes this study particularly relevant to
social work.
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Extent |
6401387 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-05-04
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0088429
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1998-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.