ERIC Number: EJ799716
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0714-9808
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Available Date: N/A
"We Only Own the Hours": Discontinuity of Care in the British Columbia Home Support System
Sharman, Zena; McLaren, Arlene Tigar; Cohen, Marcy; Ostry, Aleck
Canadian Journal on Aging, v27 n1 p89-99 2008
This article uses the concept of continuity of care to examine the implications of health-system restructuring for workers and staff in the BC home support system. Home support primarily serves frail seniors living in poverty and has the potential to provide assistance with tasks like bathing, dressing, and toileting, as well as offer social support and relational care to isolated clients. Through presentation of qualitative data from focus groups and interviews with home support workers and clients in the Greater Vancouver area, we demonstrate how the casualization and intensification of work in a context of increasing client acuity levels has diminished both continuity and quality of care. This article discusses how restructuring in the home support sector in BC has reduced the overall number of persons under care in the system, disrupted continuity of care, and compromised quality.
Descriptors: Focus Groups, Foreign Countries, Health Services, Home Health Aides, Older Adults, Poverty, Interviews, Family Environment, Work Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
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