Documents elder care 124 results

"Stationäre Altenpflege gilt als problematisch in Bezug auf schlechte Arbeitsbedingungen und daraus entstehende Fluktuation, aber auch in Bezug auf die Möglichkeiten gewerkschaftlicher Interessenvertretung. Zu erklären ist, warum es so schwer scheint, Beschäftigtenhandeln und gewerkschaftliche Organisierungsversuche produktiv für bessere Arbeits- und Pflegebedingungen miteinander zu verbinden. Dieser Beitrag diskutiert auf der Grundlage von Interviewstudien aus der Zeit um 1990 sowie aus der Gegenwart, mit welchen Strategien Beschäftigte Verbesserungen der eigenen Arbeitssituation erreichen. Aus dem explorativ angelegten Vergleich qualitativer Interviewstudien zwischen 1990 und heute ergeben sich Hinweise auf veränderte Formen einer „Arbeitszeitakrobatik“, die im Zusammenhang mit Fragen nach gewerkschaftlicher Organisierung bedeutend sind. Das Arbeitszeithandeln der Beschäftigten zielt überwiegend auf individuelle Verbesserung der eigenen Arbeitssituation und durchkreuzt kollektive, gewerkschaftliche Organisierungsversuche. Die Herausforderung einer noch zu findenden anderen gewerkschaftlichen Alltagspolitik wird im Feld der stationären Altenpflegearbeit ersichtlich."

"Soziale Dienstleistungen galten lange Zeit als wenig konfliktgeprägt. Dies hat sich nachhaltig geändert – in der Pflege, im Gesundheitswesen, in der frühkindlichen Erziehung und Bildung, in der Sozialen Arbeit. Zwei Prozesse stoßen aufeinander: Auf der einen Seite blockieren Austeritätspolitik und »Schuldenbremse« eine bedarfsgerechte Ausstattung der Einrichtungen, sind verantwortlich für unzureichende Arbeitsbedingungen und Unterbezahlung.

Auf der anderen Seite geht es um Fragen der Anerkennung hochwertiger und verantwortungsbewusster Arbeit. Der Band beleuchtet die Konflikte aus der Perspektive betrieblicher und gewerkschaftlicher Aktivist_innen sowie aus der Sicht kritischer Sozialwissenschaft."

"Based on case studies in 12 nursing homes in the United Kingdom, the authors illustrate how financial cutbacks affect job quality and the quality of care. The dimensions of job quality that suffered most were those directly related to the ability of workers to provide care: reductions in staffing, longer working hours, and work intensification. Cuts to labor costs eroded the quality of workers' jobs in all 12 homes but with two differential outcomes: in seven homes, care quality was maintained, and in five homes, it deteriorated. Care quality was maintained in homes where a patient-centered care approach and remaining job quality allowed workers to develop work-arounds to protect residents from spillover effects. Care quality declined in homes where custodial approaches to care and low job quality did not provide workers the time or resources to protect residents or to maintain prior levels of care. A tipping point was reached, leading to a spillover into impoverished care."

"Outputsteuerung, Schaffung neuer Märkte, Verlagerung von Leistungsanforderungen an Individuen – die Steuerung von Arbeit ist im Wandel und geht mit veränderten Bedingungen der Leistungserbringung einher. Auf Basis gerade abgeschlossener Forschungen rückt der Beitrag das Erleben von und den Umgang mit veränderten Leistungsanforderungen aus der Perspektive von Beschäftigten in Schule, Altenpflege und Kreativwirtschaft in den Blick. Sichtbar werden vier übergreifende Tendenzen: Widersprüche zwischen organisationalen Erwartungen und professionellen Ansprüchen, veränderte Kontroll- und Rechenschaftsmechanismen, die Zunahme symbolischer Aktivitäten sowie Veränderungen in der Professionalisierung. Abschließend werden in einem Ausblick Fragen der Legitimität und Gerechtigkeit angesprochen."

"The long-term care insurance system, introduced in 2000, has promoted the socialization of long-term care and helped to reduce the burden on families with elderly relatives who need long-term care. But while the purpose of the long-term care insurance system is to provide a necessary and sufficient level of benefits for elderly persons in need of long-term care, the system alone does not necessarily meet all of their care needs. As a result, family care or services other than long-term care insurance are required to complement long-term care insurance services. The system of care leave based on the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act was established as a preparatory period with the aim of building a system for long-term care of family members in need of such care; income guarantees during the care leave period are provided in the form of care leave benefits from the employment insurance system. However, the rate of care leave actually taken remains at an extremely low level, despite progress by businesses in establishing related regulations. What is more important is to create schemes for working formats, such as short working hour systems or limits on overtime work, to assist workers in balancing everyday and continuous employment with family care. "

"This article seeks to understand a puzzling finding: that workers in publicly funded home care for older people in Australia, compared to those in Sweden, feel that they are better able to meet their clients' needs, that their workplaces are less pressed, and that their work is less burdensome and more compatible with their family and social commitments. This finding seems to challenge expectations fostered by comparative sociological research that job quality and care services are inferior in Australia compared to Sweden. Informed by comparative institutionalist theory and care research, the structures and dynamics of the care systems in the two countries are analysed, along with findings from the NORDCARE survey of home care workers conducted in Sweden in 2005 (n=166) and Australia in 2010 (n=318). Differences in the work and working conditions in the two countries are explained by the dynamic interaction of national institutional and highly gendered sector-level effects."

"To what extent and in what ways do welfare state policies and cultural values affect the employment patterns of mid-life women with care responsibilities toward a frail parent? The study draws on Eurobarometer micro-data integrated with country-level information to respond to this question. Performing a multilevel analysis across 21 European countries, it considers macro factors that influence the decisions of mid-life women to give up or reduce paid work in order to care for a frail elderly parent. The results show that, while the overall level of expenditure on long-term care is not influential, settings characterized by limited formal care services, and strong norms with regard to intergenerational obligations, have a negative impact on women's attachment to the labour market. Policies and cultural factors also influence the extent to which women are polarized: in more defamilialized countries, regardless of their level of education, female carers rarely reduce their level of employment."

"At the beginning of the twenty-first century, intergenerational relations remain a key aspect of the future development and sustainability of the European social model. In the present paper, patterns of intergenerational support and the main driving factors behind individuals' transfer behavior are explored. In particular, the data form the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe are utilized to shed light on the main factors behind the likelihood and intensity of social support, and financial help provided to and received from other family members by ageing and elderly Europeans. The analysis also takes into consideration patterns and factors correlated with grandparenting activities. Finally, special attention is devoted to the condition of those individuals who are sandwiched between care obligations toward their elderly parents and young adult children. It is shown that the likelihood of the exchange of support between family generations is highest in Scandinavian countries and lowest in Southern Europe. The intensity of support follows an opposite North-South gradient. In addition, relevant gender-related inequalities are documented. In general, time-demanding support obligations are more likely to fall on the shoulders of women in the early stage of their later life, while mainly benefitting elderly men."

"In Japan around 100,000 working carers leave their jobs each year. While long-term care leave was legislated in 1995 with the aim of ensuring that working carers do not leave their jobs, few workers use such leave. The Japanese government has addressed this problem in 2016 by proposing amendments to the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act to allow workers to take care leave more flexibly. Focusing on another aspect of combining work and care, this paper addresses the possibility that workers who remain in their jobs may suffer from the effects of having to combine work with providing care. Although fatigue among carers has been raised as a problem in the context of issues that arise outside the workplace, such as abuse or murder of care receivers or suicide among carers, the effects that fatigue may have on carers' work is rarely a topic of discussion. The results of our original data analysis show that physical fatigue due to providing care while working full time raises the risk of having an accident while at work and failing to meet work quotas. It is therefore crucial to consider means of ensuring that working carers who come to the office as usual are able to maintain their health and work performance. "

"This article explores changes that took place in long-term care (LTC) policies during the last two decades in six European welfare states. In this regard, it addresses three issues: (1) why reforms took place, (2) the main actors and coalitions driving this process and the institutional mechanisms at work and (3) the main outcomes of reform processes. In order to analyse the development of LTC policies, the article applies theoretical concepts of historical institutionalism. Our interpretation is that institutional change in LTC policy has taken place through a protracted institutional dynamic in which continuity and discontinuity are inextricably linked and where tensions and contradictions have played a crucial role. With regard to outcomes, the article analyses coverage and citizens' social rights, working conditions in the care sector and trajectories of de-/re-familization of care. The final impact is that the level of universalism has generally increased in Europe, but that in part it has adopted a new form of ‘restricted universalism', characterized by universal entitlements to LTC benefits constrained by limitations in provision due to financial constraints and budget ceilings."