Care workers under pressure – A comparison of the work situation in Swedish home care 2005 and 2015

Abstract

As in many Western countries, eldercare services in Sweden have changed dramatically over recent decades. Population ageing, ageing‐in‐place policies, pressures to contain costs and organisational reforms linked to New Public Management are challenging public home care. There is, however, limited knowledge about how the job content and working conditions have changed in the Swedish home care across this period. This article aims to analyse and compare the work situation in the Swedish home care in 2005 and 2015. The analysis is based on the international Nordcare survey and draws on the subsample of respondents working in Swedish home care 2005 and 2015 (n = 371). The data were analysed with bivariate and multivariate methods. The results suggest that, overall, the work situation of home‐care workers was worse in 2015 compared to 2005. For example, those surveyed in 2015 reported meeting a larger number of clients per day, receiving less support from their supervisors, and having less time to discuss difficult situations with colleagues and considerably less scope to affect the planning of their daily work. Care workers in 2015 were also more mentally exhausted than those surveyed in 2005. In addition, the workers in 2015 experienced an accumulation of work‐related problems. Deteriorating working conditions could be related to cutbacks and organisational reforms, and evidence suggests that home‐care workers are paying a high price for ageing‐in‐place policies. Improvements of the work situation in home care are necessary not only to ensure the quality of care for older people, but also to ensure workers’ well‐being and to recruit and retain care workers, and thus, to meet the future needs for home care in an ageing society.

Being Treated With Respect and Dignity?—Perceptions of Home Care Service Among Persons With Dementia

“…37e39 Research in the Swedish context has shown that the workload in HCS is increasing, with an increasing number of severely ill persons to care for and an increasing number of persons per staff member per day. 40 The schedules of HCS staff are full of tasks to be completed and with a general amount of time provided for the tasks, which likely results in a PCC approach being deprioritized simply due to a lack of time. This may also influence the health of staff, as Strandell 40 revealed that mental exhaustion and work-related problems among HCS staff are increasing.…”

“…40 The schedules of HCS staff are full of tasks to be completed and with a general amount of time provided for the tasks, which likely results in a PCC approach being deprioritized simply due to a lack of time. This may also influence the health of staff, as Strandell 40 revealed that mental exhaustion and work-related problems among HCS staff are increasing. Other research showed perceived job strain among staff because of their inability to deliver good enough care.…”

Impact of Age Management on Sustainability in Czech Organisations

“…These reforms lead to new age management challenges that are primarily aimed at answering questions about how to formulate workload and working conditions so that these employees work efficiently for the organisation and, more importantly, not to lose organisational knowledge of those retiring. Research conducted by [1] shows that organisational reform of working conditions should meet the employment requirements of all employees with emphasis on those over the age of 50, given their tenure and organisational knowledge, as confirmed by a study by [2]. The research focused on conditions for the performance of managerial positions in the public sector, which would lead to the permanent retention of managers' ability to perform their positions.…”

“…This is the focus of age management, which targets all age groups of employees, and develops strategies to create a forward moving organisation focused on corporate goals. However, the age structure of the population and employment policy puts pressure primarily on retaining employees over the age of 50, and in many cases also lead to organisational reforms [1]. These reforms lead to new age management challenges that are primarily aimed at answering questions about how to formulate workload and working conditions so that these employees work efficiently for the organisation and, more importantly, not to lose organisational knowledge of those retiring.…”

Being There No Matter What: Working in Publicly Provided Homecare Services

“…omecare service work can be described as low-status, nonprofessional, and not seen as contributing to societal production (Aronson & Neysmith 1996;Keisu et al 2016;Strandell 2020). Yet, at the same time, this kind of work is an essential part of the welfare state and plays an important role in countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, where the societies lean towards a model where the state takes care of the elderly (Kamp et al 2013;Madsen 2018;Meldgaard Hansen 2016).…”