Social- og sundhedshjælperelevers omsorgsorientering og hjælperarbejdets modsætningsfyldte krav

Denne artikel handler om social- og sundhedshjælperelevers orientering mod omsorgsarbejdet og om, hvordan arbejdets indhold og rammer på en gang forudsætter og negligerer denne 'omsorgsorientering'. Gennem analysen af et livshistorisk interview med Lotte, der er sosu-hjælperelev, viser jeg, hvordan omsorgsorienteringen er en del af en livshistorisk socialisation for Lotte, hvordan den farver hendes uddannnelses- og jobvalg, og hvordan omsorgsorienteringen projiceres ud i hendes fremtidsdrømme. Klip fra observationer med Lotte i uddannelsens praktikperiode il lustrerer de modsætningsfyldte krav til Lotte, når hun er på arbejde i hjemmeplejen

CareSam:A Cross-border Collaboration Contesting notions of elderly Care

This article presents findings and discussions generated on the basis of the Danish-Swedish development project CareSam. The article will on the one hand focus on how work in groups consisting of representatives from different levels in the elderly care sector at one time served as learning spaces and cultural encounters in which established notions of older people and elderly care were challenged and discussed. Inspired by action research these challenges were brought forth through discussions of and through insight in practical experiences. On the other hand it will focus on the tendencies to narrow the diversity of perceptions of elderly people and their care, which were also seen in the project and led to stories in which the meaningfulness of care work were honored. Departing from the interviews presented in the CareSam film and parts of the empirical material produced in Connection to the work in the project-groups this paper will ask whether it is possible to represent care work for elderly people with all the ambiguities it holds: How can we as researchers represent both meaningfulness and straining dimensions of care work? Can we avoid either supporting Florence Nightingale-ideals or cementing negative cultural perceptions of help-needing elderly and the people who support them in everyday life? In answering these questions and thereby reflecting on our own work process we apply a caring, a learning and a political perspective. Hereby the article wishes to formulate a methodological point: The CareSam cross sector collaboration produced important experience near knowledge, but also lead to present somewhat one-sided understandings of elderly care. Applying theoretical perspectives to analyze the empirical material and the working process, nuances the understanding and makes it possible to maintain immediately conflicting dimensions in this kind of work

Anxiety and hope in women’s images of the transition from working life to retirement:: Explored through the Visual Matrix method

The article analyzes empirical material stemming from an explorative study of images of transitions in late life. It is based on an interdisciplinary research project, Exploring LifeTransitions in Old Age through a Visual Matrix (2014-15). The project explored a) the transition from working life to retirement, b) the transition from ordinary mental function to forms of dementia, and c) the transition from life to death. Empirical material was produced through the Visual Matrix method, and a matrix was held for each theme area with different groups of invited participants. This article focuses on the transition from working life to retirement, as it emerged through 14 female matrix participants´ visualizations. A Visual Matrix is a group-based, psycho-socially inspired method, which through its potentials to contain difficult and ambivalent feelings, is able to bring insights into layers of meaning, which can be difficult to express. The article introduces the method Visual Matrix for a Danish, secondary Nordic audience. Through examples from the transcribed matrix text and analyzes of central visualizations it shows the complexity and the strong emotional content of the participants’ideas about the transition. The analysis shows that the transition holds complex ideas and feelings. Selected visualizations illustrate how the transition activates hope, anxiety and despair among the female participants. Recurrent themes are: a) fear of passivity, disease and decay versus a longing for »letting go«; b) fear of loss of individuality versus joy of belonging to a group with new, for younger persons, hidden opportunities, and c) despair associated with the end of individual life versus hope associated with continued symbolic life through future generations. The visualizations challenge  concepts of late life as possible to categorize in a 3rd and 4th age, as retirement is portrayed as the entrance to old age and thus the entrance to essential aspects of both categories. Finally, the article discuss whether it is possible to accommodate to and process the diverse psychological challenges the transition from working life to retirement contains,within available understandings and discourses.Overgangen fra arbejdsliv til pensionistliv er omgivet af stærke samfundsmæssige, normative diskurser, samtidig med at den kan indeholde sociale, psykiske og sundhedsmæssige udfordringer for den enkelte. Derfor kan overgangen være vanskelig at tænke og tale om i hverdagens kommunikation. I artiklen analyseres empirisk materiale skabt gennem den psykosociale metode Visual Matrix. Visual Matrix er en psykodynamisk, gruppebaseret metode, hvori deltagerne gennem forestillinger, præsentation af indre billeder og associationer omgås et emne. I artiklen analyseres en Visual Matrix med 14 kvindelige deltagere centreret omkring temaet ”Forestillinger om overgangen fra arbejde til pensionistliv”. Artiklen introducerer metoden og den psykodynamiske og psykosociale metodologi bag Visual Matrix. Den viser gennem eksemplariske nedslag i den transkriberede matrix-tekst og analyser af centrale billeder kompleksiteten og det stærke følelsesmæssige indhold i deltagernes forestillinger om transitionen. På baggrund heraf diskuteres, om det er muligt at rumme og bearbejde de mangfoldige psykiske udfordringer, forestillingen om transitionen fra arbejdsliv til livet som pensionist kan rejse, indenfor til rådighed stående forståelser og diskurser