| Summary: | 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.
|
|---|
