Home care and elderly people : the experiences of home helps and old people in Salford

Warren, LA

Abstract

My study is concerned not simply with the what and the how of hone care
for the elderly but also with the I ask about how the domiciliary
services operate: what home helps do for elderly people and how they
feel about their caring role, and, what the circumstances of elderly
people needing care are and how they feel about using help. But I also
want to know why home help operates in this way: why home helps care in
the way they do and why elderly people feel as they do about using that
care?
Such an approach cannot fail to take into consideration the wider
ecological and structural context within which elderly people and home
helps live and work. Part one of my thesis, composed of three chapters,
therefore provides this backcloth. I use it to introduce the location
of the study, to present a brief history and discussion of the
development of domiciliary services for the elderly in Britain, and 10
describe the philosophy and policy shaping domiciliary provision within
Salford Social Services Department. As I shall show, current Government
economic policy is inextricably woven into the fabric of this backcloth.
In Part Two, I detail the findings of my fieldwork, painting a picture
of the lives of the frail and impaired elderly people using domiciliary
care, and of the work of the home helps providing that care. As far as
possible, I have used the interviewees' own words to explain perceptions of (in)dependence and need, of stiqma and taboo, of material and
ideological motivations, and of emotional involvements and commitments.
A number of writers have argued that dependency - a concept at the
centre of inquiries into the care of the elderly - is a socially
constructed relationship, both with respect to elderly users and female
providers of care. In Part Three, I question whether and in what way
the evidence supports or denies this claim. I ask what are the
implications of my findings for social policy. I also justify the use
of anthropological perspectives in policy-related research.
Finally, I present an account of my experience as a researcher which can
be approached from a number of different levels., At a'basic level, it
represents an immediate account of doing fieldwork. It is also my
account, as a post-graduate, of the experience of writing-up a thesis.
I consider the effect of the passing of time on context and
consciousness and hci this feeds into the analysis and presentation, of
work. And I attempt to address concerns with the writer/reader/subject
relationship which pose questions to do with communication.

Citation

Warren, L. Home care and elderly people : the experiences of home helps and old people in Salford. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 18, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 18, 2011
• Award Date: Jan 1, 1988