Perspectives on Care at Home for Older People

Demographic and epidemiological changes mean that frail older people have come to be seen as an expensive problem for health care systems. The challenge for professionals and policy-makers is to find ways to respond to the coming crisis by delivering high-quality care in the home. This collection offers a critical analysis of home care policy and practice. It focuses on how high-quality care is provided and the practices and policies that support this. It offers case studies (both policy- and practice-oriented empirical studies) from countries that share a basic orientation to social welfare: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The nine chapters set out a critical agenda for the development of "good" practices in challenging times. This book is essential reading for students, practitioners and researchers who wish to understand diverse problems in care provision for frail older persons and the complexities of policy responses in different health and social care contexts.

Kristin Björnsdóttir is Professor in the Faculty of Nursing, School of Health Sciences at the University of Iceland, Iceland. Christine Ceci is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, Canada. Mary Ellen Purkis is Dean and Professor in the Faculty of Human and Social Development at University of Victoria, Canada.

Foreword: Illness is a Plural: Home Care, Governmentality and Reframing the Work of Patienthood Carl May Introduction: Home, Care, Practice: Changing Perspectives on Care at Home for Older People Christine Ceci, Kristín Björnsdóttir and Mary Ellen Purkis Section I: Home 1. Aging, Independence and Community Mary Ellen Purkis 2. Homecare and Frail Older People: Relational Extension and the Art of Dwelling Joanna Latimer 3. Homes for Care: Reconfiguring Care Relations and Practices Isabel Dyck and Kim England Section II: Care 4. 'To Work Out What Works Best': What is Good in Home Care? Christine Ceci 5. Bringing It All Back Home: The (Re)Domestication And (De)Medicalization of Care in the UK Davina Allen 6. Assisting the Frail Elderly to Live a Good Life Through Home Care Practice Kristín Björnsdóttir Section III: Practices 7. Who Can Be Against Quality? A New Story About Home-Based Care: NPM and Governmentality Hanne Marlene Dahl 8. Creating Home Care Recipients: Using Categorization as a Tool in Home Care Case Management Anna Olaison 9. The Making of Medico-Managerial Care Work Culture in Public Home Care for the Elderly Lea Henriksson and Sirpa Wrede