Introduction

Welcome to our first issue in 2023 of the International Journal of Care and Caring (IJCC), Volume 7, Number 1. This issue includes nine peer-reviewed articles, two ‘Debates and issues’ items and book reviews by authors based in, or writing about, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Peer-reviewed articles

We begin with three articles that engage with crucial conceptual issues and policy ideas in care and caring. ‘The first cross-national study of adolescent young carers aged 15–17 in six European countries’ was produced by scholars based in Italy (Licia Boccaletti, Giulia Casu, Sara Santini, Marco Socci and Barbara D’Amen), the Netherlands (Renske Hoefman and Nynke de Jong), Slovenia (Valentina Hlebec and Maja Mrzel), Sweden (Rosita Brolin, Elizabeth Hanson and Lennart Magnusson), Switzerland (Elena Guggiari and Agnes Leu) and the UK (Saul Becker, Stephen Joseph, Feylyn Mercedies Lewis, Thomas Parkhouse and Daniel Phelps) (2023). It presents the results of an online survey of the well-being, mental and physical health, education, and preferences of over 2,000 adolescents in these countries who were providing unpaid care to ill or disabled family members. Based on this unique new data set, the authors make a compelling case for adopting a ‘rights approach’ in policy responses to caring among young adolescents, both in the individual countries studied and at the European level.

Our second article looks at social care provision in East Asia, based on a study of the introduction of a care services market in South Korea. In ‘Reconciling for-profit social service provision with a regulatory framework: Korean long-term care’, Chang Lyul Jung (Dankook University, Korea), Alan Walker (University of Sheffield, UK) and Yongpil Moon (Gwangju University, Korea) (2023) discuss the national system of long-term care introduced in Korea with the aim of achieving rapid transformation from family-based arrangements to a universal system based on choice and competition in a care market. The article shows how, in response to early difficulties, Korea’s government imposed a regulatory framework, aiming to tackle problems of equity and access. The evidence discussed reveals the consequences of profit maximisation and raises issues about trust, competition, choice and intervention. The article shows that tensions and conflicts ebb and flow in response to these, highlighting complex issues that arise when policy goals are set in the context of for-profit provision.

We turn next to Sweden, where Marcus Herz (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Jesper Andreasson (Linnaeus University, Sweden) and Frida Andréasson (Linköping University, Sweden) (2023), in ‘The precariousness of asylum-seekers’ care and support: informal care within and because of the immigration process’, use ethnographic data to explore the provision of unpaid care by asylum-seekers and how this intersects with Swedish asylum processes. The authors use detailed testimony from interviewees to show how in framing asylum-seekers as ‘ungrievable’ and ‘deportable’, the Swedish welfare system and immigration authorities impede their access to formal care systems and values.

The next three articles in the issue focus on developments in the UK. ‘Accountability and neglect in UK social care innovation’, by Cian O’Donovan (University College London, UK) (2023), discusses how innovation in social care changes both who is held to account and how this is done. O’Donovan uses a two-level situational analysis, finding evidence that innovation can involve neglect (of issues, objects and subjects missing from research), low institutional reflexivity and weak evaluation impact, identifying these as crucial matters that need to be addressed in post-pandemic social care reform.

‘Facilitators of, and barriers to, personalisation in care homes in England: evidence from Care Quality Commission inspection reports’, by scholars at two London universities (Jacqueline Damant, Margaret Perkins and Raphael Wittenberg [London School of Economics and Political Science, UK]; Stefanie Ettelt, Lorraine Williams and Nicholas Mays [London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK]) (2023), focuses on the provision of ‘person-centred’ care in residential care homes in England. Based on analysis of 50 reports of care facilities by the official regulator (the Care Quality Commission [CQC]), the authors explore factors the CQC identifies as promoting or impeding this approach: valuing personal identity, empowering resident decision-making and fostering care relationships. They find that personalisation is affected by staff skills, attitudes and availability, and by the quality of care home leadership. They also recommend that policymakers address external pressures, including inadequate funding and staffing.

In her contribution, Nicola Brimblecombe (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) (2023) explores ‘The consequences for unpaid carers of unmet need for long-term care services in England’. Based on interviews with co-resident carers, the article explores new evidence about the extent and impacts of ‘unmet need’. Defining this as ‘services not being received or gaps between provision and need’, Brimblecombe argues that this issue has multidimensional impacts on carers, whose experience is particularly affected by limitations on their time, by the depletion of their emotional resources and by their constrained choices.

Our next article focuses on the experiences of carers living in Canada. In ‘Asian family carers of persons living with dementia: a stress and coping model’, Lalita Kaewwilai (University of Alberta, Canada, and Mahidol University, Thailand), Wendy Duggleby, Anna Santos Salas and Hannah O’Rourke (all University of Alberta, Canada) (2023) explore the situation of Asian family carers of persons living with dementia. Their model, based on quantitative and qualitative studies, is adapted to this group of carers. It specifies personal and environment factors applicable to their specific contexts, emphasises the importance of social support, considers how culture affects appraisal and coping processes, distinguishes positive and negative coping strategies, and emphasises quality of life as an outcome of coping.

In ‘“Watchful waiting”: everyday ethical caring practices of general practitioners in cases of intimate partner violence’, Eva Vergaert, Gily Coene (both Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) and Sophie Withaeckx (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) (2023) use Tronto’s ethics of care theorisation to explore the ethical caring practices of general practitioners in Flanders, who were interviewed about their experiences of dealing with cases of intimate partner violence. They find that these professionals experience difficulties in clarifying patients’ caring needs and in dealing with carers’ and care receivers’ conflicting expectations in this specific context.

Our final article in this section is from Australia. In ‘Evaluation of a brief carer support intervention’, Maureen Long, Margarita Frederico and Richard Fernandez (La Trobe University, Australia) (2023) present the results of an evaluation of an intervention designed to improve carers’ well-being delivered by a community service organisation. Offered as a manualised programme, this provided information and psycho-education to carers in several regional locations in Victoria, Australia, producing positive change in their understanding of supports, social connectedness and positive mental health and well-being.

Debates and issues

Our ‘Debates and issues’ section in this issue includes contributions from Canada and about Russia. In ‘Ethnocultural long-term care homes in Canada: a place for cultural inheritance and community building’, Izumi Niki (University of Toronto, Canada) (2023) considers the role of recreation programmes in the ethnocultural and cultural-specific long-term care home where she works as a recreation worker, drawing on experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and arguing that recreational programmes offer a practice of cultural inheritance through which staff and volunteers learn about their history. She also observes that by engendering a sense of belonging to the ethnic community among residents, volunteers, families and workers, they also contribute to community building for minority ethnic groups.

Liliya Martynova (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) (2023), in ‘The Moscow Longevity project: possibilities to improve senior well-being and paths for further research’, focuses on older people, their social engagement and the conceptualisation of ageing in Moscow. Her account describes and assesses the role of a government project – the ‘Strategy of actions in interests of senior citizens in the Russian Federation until 2025’ – targeted at seniors and designed to encourage behaviours that will provide a positive context for active longevity, self-realisation and social engagements.

Reviews

We are very grateful to Michael D. Fine (Macquarie University, Australia) for his thoughtful and thought-provoking review of Kathleen Lynch’s important new book, Care and Capitalism. Why Affective Equality Matters for Social Justice (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022).

Our sincere thanks, as ever, to our contributors, anonymous peer reviewers and members of the IJCC’s editorial, management and production teams.