Care Work and Reconnections

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Abstract

The role of care workers in in-home care has been little explored in terms of their relationship with their clients. Their position in many countries of standing betwixt and between client and agency, of becoming almost like kin, and their own frustrations with lack of autonomy, poor pay and working conditions, puts them also in a liminal stage. The care work relationship tends to be defined in terms of the physical and material tasks performed to support the older person at home, while the less tangible, emotional work tends not to be recognised. We maintain that it is this relationship with frail older people which has the potential to provide support for the reclamation of a preferred identity and the reconnection in the final phase of the rite of passage into a new life stage of supported independence.

Keywords

Home Care Care Recipient Emotional Engagement Emotional Connection Care Task 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Dept. Preventive & Social Medicinec/o University of OtagoDunedinNew Zealand
  2. 2.Dept. Political Science &Public PolicyUniversity of WaikatoHamiltonNew Zealand
  3. 3.Dept. Preventive & Social MedicineUniversity of OtagoDunedinNew Zealand

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