Although international research has shown an increase in precarious work in recent decades, few of these studies have been devoted to paid care work. This article joins feminist research on care work with work–life oriented research on precarious work to study the work situation of Swedish homecare workers. The results show a high prevalence of multidimensional precariousness among the care workers and reveal how several indicators of job precariousness are associated with physical and mental strain, poor work–life balance, and intentions to quit the job, including time pressure, lack of job control and limited possibilities to develop and use skills, as well as to create and keep relations with users.
People living with dementia can experience a range of behaviours that can be described as distressed. As most research on distressed reactions has been carried out in care homes, this study explores how family carers of people living with dementia make sense of distressed reactions in home settings, as well as the strategies they have used to manage them. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine carers. The following themes were explored: understandings of distressed reactions; the perceived causes of distressed reactions; and the consequences and management of distressed reactions. Recommendations indicate the specific support that carers require to help them provide appropriate care.
This qualitative study explores the influence of Malay culture and religion in shaping the pathways of help seeking for family carers of older adults with mental health problems in rural Malaysia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with family carers of older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. Thematic analysis was used to analyse patterns within the data. Based upon the perspectives of family carers, findings show how cultural and religious beliefs and practices provided support to carers, and highlight how carers manage the intersection of culture and religion with psychiatric treatment for their family members with mental illness.
This article advances understanding of the unpaid care–paid work nexus for carers of a person with a disability or illness, or a frail older relative. It examines the relationship between care intensity (measured in terms of both care hours and care strain) and withdrawal from work (measured in terms of both withdrawal of time spent in paid work and withdrawal from career development and progression). The analysis reveals that care strain has a stronger relationship with all dimensions of work withdrawal than care hours. It also reveals that the relationship between care strain and work withdrawal is moderated by a family-supportive work environment. The article sheds new light on the potential role of workplace cultures in mitigating the impacts of work–care conflict.
This study explores older people’s long-term care experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. A qualitative descriptive approach employing semi-structured interviews was used to collect data from 15 older people from Southern Ghana. Analysis of interview data resulted in five interrelated themes: (1) sources and type of long-term care; (2) older people’s satisfaction with the long-term care received; (3) changes in their long-term care; (4) feelings of neglect regarding long-term care; and (5) older people’s resilience in long-term care. The sustainability of long-term care depends on the state’s ability to devise innovative long-term care policies and programmes to promote older people’s and their carers’ well-being.
As policy and funding associated with informal/unpaid/family caring develops, more attention has been given to data that support and inform such policy. In particular, evidence around aspects of inequality is often expressed in geographical variations between places in terms of numbers and rates. In general, to date, research on informal caring has focused little on how such variations can be visualised and analysed. This short article looks at the mapping of data from Irish censuses between 2002 and 2016 to: first, explore and visualise patterns of caring, including high-intensity caring. A second broad aim is to use different spatial techniques, including location quotients and clustering, to provide more robust visualisations of spatial variations. Finally, some putative links are but forward between the variable geographical distributions of caring and changes in legislation and policy for carers in Ireland during that same period.
