In search of personal care

Wellin

Chris

Wellin, Chris

Author

Jaffe

Dale J.

Jaffe, Dale J.

Author

University of California, Berkeley

Center for Working Families

University of California, Berkeley. Center for Working Families

Sponsor

text

working paper

Berkeley, CA Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley 2001 2001 monographic

Berkeley, CA

Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley

2001

monographic

English eng

English

eng

electronic application/pdf 1 p. born digital

electronic

application/pdf

1 p.

born digital

In addition to medical and bodily needs, personali(ized) care involves the biographical and social identity of the recipient. Care-work always requires some adaptation to individual preferences and responses. But typically this is either an implicit or a secondary feature of care. However, with chronic, cognitive illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, the very capacity for maintaining self (e.g. memory and language facility) is threatened, and so the extent to which care addresses the person qua person becomes especially significant: For the afflicted, personalized care is identity care. Our analysis is based on paid work and field research in "quasi-institutional" residential care settings for the elderly; such settings claim to support collaboration between formal (paid) and informal (family) care-givers. We find that, despite its sentimental folk meaning, there is no simple consensus regarding the meaning or practices of personal care. We first develop a conceptual and empirically grounded definition; we then discuss its diverse meanings for the various groups involved in paid elder care and reflect on their practical implications for the fulfillment of the ideal. Our research shows that obstacles to personal-as-identity care are not confined to large bureaucratic or medicalized institutions. Among the obstacles we find in residential care are instrumental definitions of care among paid workers and the public at large; a "familial" division of labor lacking specific provision for such care; and emotional demands of the care, from which families seek relief. Even when those concerned do orient care to preserving identity, there is tension regarding whether to treat identity as object(ive) or as process.

Chris Wellin was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley. Dale Jaffe is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Annette Lareau is a Professor of Sociology at Temple University and was an affiliate at the Berkeley Center for Working Families from 1999-2000.

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper No. 22

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper

No. 22

Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States" (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/)

wfn_bwpaper_60.pdf

MChB English eng

MChB

English eng

English

eng