Fragile familiarity in transnational home care arrangements for older people

K. van Holten, H. Kaspar, E. Soom-Ammann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper examines the notion of familiarity in live-in elder care settings and how it is challenged, changed, and reestablished. Live-in care is a strategy to prevent disruptions and preserve familiarity in enabling older persons in need of extensive care to stay at home – and thus, to enable ageing in place. This paper problematizes this strategy based on interviews with family caregivers who engaged a migrant live-in care worker in Switzerland. The key argument is that live-in care arrangements constitute an all-embracing form of inserting formal, paid-for care service delivery into the informal, private, intimate space of home. The live-in care arrangement not only challenges the familiarity of the home space, but also seems to ask for strategies of adaptation to familiarize the unfamiliar. Therefore, the introduction of live-in care is consequential for all involved parties and requires largely underestimated efforts to adapt to the new home space. © The Authors.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)51-82
Number of pages32
JournalInternational Journal of Ageing and Later Life
Volume13
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Dec 2019

Keywords

  • aged
  • article
  • caregiver
  • home care
  • human
  • independent living
  • interview
  • long term care
  • migrant
  • Switzerland
  • worker

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