Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T22:54:20.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paid Companions: A Private Care Option for Older Adults*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2013

Linda Outcalt
Linda Outcalt*
Affiliation:
Centre on Aging, University of Victoria
*
†Correspondence and requests for offprints should be sent to / La correspondance et les demandes de tirés-à-part doivent être adressées à: Linda Outcalt, M.A. Centre on Aging University of Victoria P.O. Box 1700 STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Résumé

Les compagnons rémunérés, fonctionnant d’une façon autonome ou par le biais des agences privées de soins à domicile, effectuent une variété de services pour les personnes âgées nanties qui peuvent se payer pour le soutien privé dans leurs maisons et dans les centres qui dispensent tels soins. Cette étude a examiné le travail accompli par les compagnons rémunérés, en s’appuyant sur des entretiens semi-structurés, ouverte, des entrevues en personne et d’élicitation des photos auto-pilotées (par lequel les individus prennent leur propres photos et en discuter plus tard dans les entretiens) avec 30 participants (15 compagnons, 8 clients et 7 informateurs clés). Les résultats ont révelé que, de plusieurs façons, les services fournis par les compagnons pour les clients qui vivent dans leurs propres maisons ressemblent aux soins à domicile basés sur les tâches, mais l’accent mis sur le travail est différent. Les relations sociales et émotionelles avec les clients sont au centre de leur travail. Les compagnons basés dans les établissements jouent un rôle unique, remplissant le vide laissé par les compressions budgetaires des ratios de dotation en personnel, qui garde les résidents âgés, souvent atteint de démence, impliqués et engagés dans le monde.

Keywords

vieillissmentprestation des soinscompagnons rémunéréssoins à domicile privésélicitation des photos auto-pilotéesagingcaregivingpaid companionsprivate home carephoto elicitation
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 87 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was conducted as part of the M.A. degree program at the University of Victoria, and was supported by awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (CGS Master’s Scholarship), the University of Victoria (President’s Research Scholarship), the Sara Spencer Foundation, the BC Network on Aging Student Data Collection Award, and a BC Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services Student Led Research Grant. I thank the research participants for sharing their experiences with me. I also thank Neena Chappell and Laura Funk for their reviews of an earlier version of this manuscript.

References

Armstrong, P., Armstrong, H., & Scott-Dixon, K. (2008). Critical to care: The invisible women in health services. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Aronson, J., & Neysmith, S.M. (1996). ‘You’re not just in there to do the work’: Depersonalizing policies and the exploitation of home care workers’ labour. Gender and Society, 10(1), 59–77.Google Scholar
Baines, C., Evans, P., & Neysmith, S. (1998). Women’s caring: Work expanding, state contracting. In Baines, C., Evans, P., & Neysmith, S. (Eds.), Women’s caring: Feminist perspectives on social welfare (pp. 3–22). Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
BC Health Coalition. (2008). P3Care facilities. Retrieved March 21, 2012 fromhttp://www.bchealthcoalition.ca/content/view/72/25/.Google Scholar
Benoit, C., & Shumka, L. (2009). Gendering the health determinants framework: Why girls’ and women’s health matters. Vancouver: Women’s Health Research Network.Google Scholar
Benoit, C., & Hallgrímsdóttir, H.K. (2008). Engendering research on care and care work across social contexts. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 99(Suppl2), S7–S10.Google Scholar
Binney, E., & Estes, C.L. (1988). The retreat of the state and its transfer of responsibility: The intergenerational war. International Journal of Health Sciences, 18(1), 83–96.Google Scholar
Butler-Jones, D. (2010). Report of the state of public health in Canada: 2010 growing older – adding life to years. Ottawa: Government of Canada.Google Scholar
Chappell, N. (2008). Comparing caregivers to older adults in Shanghai. The Asian Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 3(2), 57–65.Google Scholar
Chappell, N.L., Havens, B., Hollander, M.J., Miller, J.A., & McWilliam, C. (2004). Comparative costs of home care and residential care. The Gerontologist, 44, 89–400.Google Scholar
Chappell, N., & Penning, M. (2005). Family caregivers: Increasing demands in the context of 21st century globalization. In Johnson, M.L. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing (pp. 455–462). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dodson, L., & Zincavage, R.M. (2007). It’s like a family: Caring labor, exploitation and race in nursing homes. Gender and Society, 21(6), 905–928.Google Scholar
England, P. (2005). Emerging theories of care work. Annual Review of Sociology, 31, 381–399.Google Scholar
Evers, A. (1994). Payments for care: A small but significant part of a wider debate. In Evers, A., Pijl, M., & Ungerson, C. (Eds.), Payments for care: A comparative overview (pp. 19–41). Avebury/European Centre Vienna, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Fine, M. (2005). Dependency work: A critical exploration of Kittay’s perspective on care as a relationship of power. Health Sociology Review, 14(2), 146–160.Google Scholar
Harper, D. (1998). An argument for visual sociology. In Prosser, J. (Ed.), Image-based research. London: RoutledgeFalmer.Google Scholar
Health Canada. (2010). Healthy living. Seniors. Ottawa: Government of Canada. Retrieved fromhttp://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/seniors-aines/index-eng.php/.Google Scholar
Hochschild, A.R. (2003). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hooyman, N.R., & Gonyea, J. (1995). The social, political and historical context of caregiving for dependents. In Hooyman, N.R. & Gonyea, J. (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on family care (pp. 107–119). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hooyman, N.R., & Gonyea, J. (1999). A feminist model of family care: Practice and policy directions. Journal of Women and Aging. 11(2–3), 149–169.Google Scholar
Hospital Employees Union (HEU). (2009). Quality of care in BC’s residential care facilities: A submission to the office of the BC Ombudsman on seniors’ care. Burnaby, BC: HEU. Retrieved March 22, 2012 fromhttp://www.heu.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2010%20seniors/HEU%20submission%20to%20Ombudsperson.pdf.Google Scholar
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. (2011). Indicators of well-being in Canada. Canadians in context – population size and growth. Ottawa: Government of Canada. Retrieved March 14, 2012 from.Google Scholar
Karner, T.X. (1998). Professional caring: Homecare workers as fictive kin. Journal of Aging Studies, 12(1), 69–82.Google Scholar
Leitner, S. (2003). Varieties of familialism: The caring function of the family in comparative function. European Societies. 5(4), 353–375.Google Scholar
McGrail, K., Broemeling, A., McGregor, M.J., Salomons, K., Ronald, L.A., & McKendry, R. (2008). Home health services in British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research.Google Scholar
Navarro, V. (2002). Neoliberalism, “globalization,” unemployment, inequalities, and the welfare state. In Navarro, V. (Ed.), The political economy of social inequalities: Consequences for health and quality of life, (pp. 33–107). Amityville, NY: Baywood.Google Scholar
Penning, M.J., Brackley, M.E., & Allan, D. (2006). Home care and health care reform: Changes in home care utilization in one Canadian province, 1990–2000. The Gerontologist, 46(6), 744–758.Google Scholar
Piercy, K.W. (2000). When is it more than a job: Close relationships between home care aides and other clients. Journal of Aging and Health, 12(3), 362–387.Google Scholar
Pink, S. (2003). Interdisciplinary agendas in visual research: Re-situating visual anthropology. Visual Studies, 18(2), 179–192.Google Scholar
Purkis, M.E., Ceci, C., & Bjornsdottir, K. (2008). Patching up the holes: Analyzing the work of home care. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 99(Suppl. 2), S27–S32.Google Scholar
Rivas, L.M. (2003). Invisible labors: Caring for the independent person. In Ehrenreich, B. & Hochschild, A.R. (Eds.), Global woman: Nannies, maids and sex workers in the new economy (pp. 70–84). London: Granta Books.Google Scholar
Rose, N. (1996) Governing “advanced” liberal democracies. In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neoliberalism and Rationalities of Government. Osborne, B.A., , B.A. & Rose, N. (Eds.), (pp. 37–64). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sims-Gould, J., & Martin-Matthews, A. (2010). Strategies used by home support workers in the delivery of care to elderly clients. Canadian Journal on Aging, 29(1), 97–107.Google Scholar
Stanczak, G. (2007). Introduction: Images, methodologies, and generating social knowledge. In Visual research methods: Image, society and representation. Stanczak, G. (Ed.). (pp. 1–21). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Treloar, R., & Funk, L. (2008). Mothers’ health, responsibilization and choice in family care work after separation/divorce. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 99(Suppl 2), S33–S37.Google Scholar
Ungerson, C. (1997). Social politics and the commodification of care. Social Politics, 4(3), 362–381.Google Scholar
Ungerson, C. (1999). Personal assistants and disabled people: An examination of a hybrid form of work and care. Work, Employment and Society, 13(4), 583–600.Google Scholar
Ungerson, C. (2004). Whose empowerment and independence? A cross-national perspective on “cash for care” schemes’. Ageing and Society, 24(2), 189–212.Google Scholar
Wang, C. & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education Behaviour. 24(3):369–387.Google Scholar
Ward-Griffin, C., & Marshall, V. (2003). Reconceptualizing the relationship between ‘public’ and ‘private’ eldercare. Journal of Aging Studies, 17, 189–208.Google Scholar
Williams, P., Deber, R., Baranek, P., & Gildiner, A. (2001). From Medicare to home care: Globalization, state retrenchment, and the profitization of Canada’s health-care system. In Armstrong, P., Armstrong, H., & Coburn, D. (Eds.), Unhealthy times: Political economy perspectives on health and care in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zelizer, V. A. (2005). Encounters of intimacy and economy. In Zelizer, V.A., The Purchase of Intimacy. (pp. 7–46). Princeton University Press.Google Scholar