The Logic of Protection : A Study of Informal Caregiving to Older Family Members in Immigrant Families

This dissertation aims to examine and deepen the knowledge of family member caregiving where the care recipient is an elderly person who immigrated late in life. It also aims to contribute to the knowledge of the complexities underlying informal care giving and add to our understandings of what it means to be an immigrant in Sweden. The caregiver is in focus. The research conducted is explorative and partly inductive. The main material used is a qualitative interview study carried out with family members from different countries who are providing informal care to elderly immigrant relatives. The analysis gives three patterns of caregiving. One shows help from informal caregivers only who are not compensated economically. Another shows help from family members who are compensated. The third shows help from family members and staff from the public care system. Three ideal-typical informal caregiver roles show different positions vis-à-vis the new: “guardian”, “filter” and “reinterpreter of traditional care ideals”. Swedish born and immigrated informal caregivers are also compared through analysis of data gathered in telephone interviews with a representative selection of inhabitants in the County of Stockholm. A philosophy of action together with theory on integration and multiculturalism serves as theoretical frameworks to understand discrepancies and ambiguities in the data. Young immigrants experience different integration processes than do the older ones. They strive to protect older family members from changes linked to the migration experience. Talk about dependence on culture underlines family feelings and legitimates the processes of protection. Preconceptions about great differences between Swedish born and immigrant families are not supported by quantitative data. A conclusion is that protection can be understood in relation both to the traditional and the new, the latter in the forms of meetings with Swedish society where unequal relations prevail. It is a kind of counter-strategy where the range of actions is diminished, and thus it has its own logic. Protection can be loosened up when the circumstances change and the range of actions grow

Utsatt och priviligerad : en studie om att återfå assistansersättning efter 65

Bilaga B i Assistansersättning efter 65 : utvärdering av de nya reglern

Integrationsarbete i civilsamhället : unga och äldre i blickfånget

Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera verksamheter och insatser inom frivilligorganisationer med en uttalad målsättning att öka integrationen av invandrade barn och unga respektive äldre i det svenska samhället. Materialinsamlingen har gjorts genom semistrukturerade, kvalitativa intervjuer med nyckelpersoner på lokalnivå i tolv organisationer med olika profil på tre sinsemellan olika orter. Intervjupersonerna, alla verksamma i det dagliga arbetet, uttalar sig om egna erfarenheter och synpunkter. Det är deras berättelser som utgör empirin här

Anhörigomsorg mot betalning : Biståndshandläggare om sent-i-livet-invandares önskemål

Att identifiera behov hos äldre klienter med invandrarbakgrund: har föreställningar om tvärkulturella möten, invandrarskap och kön någon betydelse för behovsbedömningsprocessen

Professional discretion and length of work experience : what findings from focus groups with care managers in elder care suggest

Research has explored how care managers in elder care - who often function as street-level bureaucrats' - regard professional discretion. The way in which length of work experience affects care managers' use of professional discretion remains, however, unexplored. This article present findings from 12 focus groups with 60 care managers. By bringing attention to how care managers experience the needs assessment process, this article sheds light on how these street-level bureaucrats' struggle when they try to balance their clients' needs against institutional frameworks and local guidelines. Length of work experience seems to play a role in how care managers claim to use professional discretion. Experienced care managers describe how they deviate from the guidelines at times in order to create an increased scope of action in their decision-making process. Those with less time in the profession describe greater difficulties in this respect. Findings suggest that research should explore if length of work experience plays a role in the actual way in which care managers assess needs and make decisions. As such, they contribute to our understanding of how needs assessment processes are navigated by professionals while also pointing towards the nature of professional discretion in gerontological social work

Anhörigomsorg mot betalning : Biståndshandläggare om sent-i-livet-invandares önskemål

Att identifiera behov hos äldre klienter med invandrarbakgrund: har föreställningar om tvärkulturella möten, invandrarskap och kön någon betydelse för behovsbedömningsprocessen

Needs asessment practice within elder care : Does length of work experience make a difference in how care managers percieve professional discretion?

This presentation departs from the ongoing debate about how care managers - who often function as ‘street level bureaucrats’ – perceive different aspects of professional discretion in needs assessment practice. Few studies within gerontological social work today have explored if length of work experience affect how care managers experience discretion in the decision-making process which is why this paper focuses on this. The presentation is based on a study that uses focus group interviews (n=12) with 60 care managers in Sweden. The findings show that care managers struggle with ambiguous expectations in balancing clients’ needs and requests against organizational systems, local guidelines and resources. Length of work experience seems to play a role in how they use their discretion and cope with the lack of clarity embedded in the needs assessment process. Experienced care managers describe how they deviate from the guidelines and in this way create an increased scope of action for themselves in decision making. Those with less time in the profession describe, greater difficulties in this respect. The results partially support the critical debate that professional discretion can be experienced in different ways by ‘street level bureaucrats’. The study also adds knew knowledge to this discussion by showing that length of work experience and other work experience-related aspects can play a role in the actual way in which care managers reason about and assess clients’ needs in the decision making process