Calling for Care: ‘Disembodied’ Work, Teleoperators and Older People Living at Home

Abstract

The provision of 'distant' care to older people living at home through telecare technologies is often contrasted negatively to hands-on, face-to-face care: telecare is seen as a loss of care, a dehumanization. Here we challenge this view, arguing that teleoperators in telecare services do provide care to older people, often at significant emotional cost to themselves. Based on a European Commission-funded ethnographic study of two English telecare monitoring centres, we argue that telecare is not 'disembodied' work, but a form of care performed through the use of voice, knowledge sharing and emotional labour or self-management. We also show, in distinction to discourses promoting telecare in the UK, that successful telecare relies on the existence of social networks and the availability of hands-on care. Telecare is not a substitute for, or the opposite of, hands-on care but is at its best interwoven with it.

Telecare Call Centre Work and Ageing in Place

“…Staff end up giving out lots of advice and find themselves, as a consequence, undertaking various forms of 'emotional labour' (fieldwork extracts 10-12). As Roberts et al (2012) observe, telecare services are providing more than just 'disembodied care'.…”

“…Previous studies of telecare call centre work have shown how the use of the technology becomes interwoven with existing social networks and hands-on care, shaping the meaning of care and the role of call takers (Pols 2010;Pols and Willems 2011;Milligan et al 2011;Roberts et al 2012). The EFORTT project illustrated how call takers undertake a variety of complex tasks in their efforts to ensure that older people benefit.…”

“…Call takers need to join up information and be able to call 'contacts' when a situation is unclear or ambiguous. In addition, they have been found to carry out 'emotional labour' (Roberts et al 2012), providing essential social contact to people who are lonely or confused, and reassurance to those in crisis until help arrives.…”

“…In the following four extracts, we see the emphasis that call centre staff put on doing 'emotional labour' (Roberts et al 2012). …”

“…Throughout the OECD nations, an ageing population is fuelling interest in assisted living technologies (ALTs) and care services to support 'ageing in place' through 'care at a distance' (Roberts et al 2012)-that is, measures to enable older people to live independently at home, avoid or defer institutional care in later life and remain active participants in society. These measures are seen by health and social care policy makers as a solution to the inter-related trends of ageing of the baby boom generation; rising rates of chronic illness and disability; shortfalls in health system capacity and budgets; and shifting social roles and expectations.…”