Search

As populations worldwide are ageing, Western welfare states are currently implementing welfare reforms aimed at curbing the rising need for social and healthcare services for ageing populations. A central element in home‐care reforms in several welfare countries is reablement: short‐term home‐based training programmes aimed at re‐enabling older people to live in their own homes independently of care. In this paper, we explore how transitioning from compensatory care to reablement care is not merely a practical process, but also a deeply normative one. Drawing on Annemarie Mol's concept of 'ontonorms' we analyse the normative dynamics involved in transitioning from one form of care to another as reflected in reablement professionals' practices and discourses. The paper draws on 10 months of multisited ethnographic fieldwork carried out from April 2015 to February 2016 in a Danish municipality, including participant observations of reablement practices as well as qualitative interviews with 13 professionals working with reablement. We demonstrate that professionals generally consider reablement to represent a desirable shift in home care from 'bad care' practices of making people passive through compensatory care, towards 'good care' practices of 'keeping people going' despite their limitations. Moreover, we demonstrate that while therapists are valued as 'good carers' due to their ability to focus on development and training, nurses and in particular home helpers are devalued as 'bad carers' due to their 'caring genes' and lack of technical and theoretical skills necessary for documentation work. Finally, we discuss the implications of these normative dynamics, which may risk stigmatising compensating care practices, although this form of care to a large extent continues to coexist with reablement practices. In conclusion, we argue for a more nuanced approach to care, recognising compensatory care and reablement as complementary forms of care, each doing good under different circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary policy strategies frame welfare technologies as a solution for welfare states facing the challenges of demographic change. Technologies are supposed to reduce or substitute the work of care workers and thereby reduce attrition among their ranks, reduce costs, and at the same make elderly people self-reliant and independent. In this paper, it is suggested that this way of framing how welfare technologies work with elderly people holds an instrumental view of technologies as well as of bodies and needs to be challenged. Drawing on an STS (Science Technology Studies) understanding of the constituting role of technology in people’s lives, the guiding question in this study is how autonomy is practised in the lives of elderly people using welfare technologies. The study is based on interviews with eight elderly citizens in a Danish municipality who have been provided with a wash toilet and often also other technologies as part of their welfare service package. The study shows how autonomy is practised in various ways, how autonomy is practised in specific areas of life linked to the specific life story and body of the elderly citizen, how autonomy is situational as it is practised in specific situations during the day/week, and how autonomy is relational as it is practised in relation to specific persons and things and with specific persons and things. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the implementation of welfare technology as well as forms of governance appropriate for embodied elderly citizens and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the manner in which two hospices - one located in Denmark and one in Australia - negotiate and determine the boundaries of volunteer workers vis-à-vis paid staff. A comparative case study approach was used to juxtapose organisations with similar activity fields located in different welfare state systems, i.e. a social democratic welfare state and a liberal welfare state. This study involved non-participant observation of volunteers at work and unstructured interviews with volunteers, staff and management in the hospices ( n = 41). Data were collected between August 2012 and February 2013. Data were managed using NVivo and analysed thematically. A key finding is that volunteers in the Danish hospice were excluded from all direct care work due to the effective monopoly of the professional care providers, whereas the Australian volunteers participated in the provision of care to the extent that risk could be eliminated or mitigated to an acceptable level. The findings suggest two different models of the roles of volunteers in tension with professional care providers. Both models recognise that volunteers add to the level of care delivered by the organisations and allow for a discussion that moves away from the normative discussions of 'not taking somebody's job', while also recognising that volunteers must be more than just the 'nice extra' if they are to be of any real value to the organisation and to care receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TIMMERMANN C., UHRENFELDT L. & BIRKELUND R. (2013) European Journal of Cancer Care 22, 117-124 Cancer patients and positive sensory impressions in the hospital environment - a qualitative interview study This study explores how cancer patients experience the meaning of positive sensory impressions in the hospital environment such as architecture, decoration and the interior. Data were obtained at a general hospital in Denmark by interviewing six cancer patients at two different wards. The analysis process was guided by the hermeneutical-phenomenological theory of interpretation as presented by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur. Two main themes were identified: to preserve identity and positive thoughts and feelings. The participants experienced that positive sensory impressions in the hospital environment had a significant impact on their mood, generating positive thoughts and feelings. A view to nature also helped them to forget their negative thoughts for a while. The possibility of having a view helped some cancer patients to connect with good memories and personal life stories that enabled them to recall some of their feelings of identity. This paper adds knowledge about how cancer patients experience sensory impressions in the hospital environment. An environment that provides homeliness and offers a view to nature seems to help some patients to preserve their identity. Furthermore, positive sensory impressions and the opportunity for recreation through environmental facilities strengthen the patient's positive thoughts and feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. This paper deals with secular, spiritual, and religious existential concerns during severe illness. Materials and Methods. Qualitative research interviews were made before and after surgery with women who underwent final diagnostics, surgery, and chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. By applying a phenomenological-hermeneutic text interpretation methodology the findings were systematically identified, placed into meaning structures, interpreted, and critically discussed. Results. The analysis offered insight into the complexity of challenges and personal development over time in being a woman with ovarian cancer during her first treatment period. Although the women experienced their health to be seriously threatened, they also felt hope, will, and courage. The diagnostic procedures and treatment had comprehensive impact on their lives. However, hope and spirituality were important resources of comfort and meaning. Conclusion. Hope and courage to face life represent significant personal resources that are created not only in the interplay between body and mind but also between patients and their healthcare professionals. The women dealt with this in a dialectical manner, so that hope and despair could be present simultaneously. In this process secular, spiritual, and religious existential meaning orientations assisted the women in creating new narratives and obtain new orientations in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]