Placed in homecare: Living an everyday life restricted by dependence and monitoring

Abstract

Through a sociological case study this article analyses how, seen from a relational perspective, everyday life for elderly people receiving care in their own homes is lived with dependence on health-care professionals. The healthcare professionals' time and tasks are assigned and allocated in advance so that the elderly people are neither allowed nor able to vary their response in relation to the situation they encounter. The life of the client is also treated as though it were a solid, structured everyday life with minimal private time. Work in the home, for example, household chores and personal care, resembles a disciplining strategy. The client lives under conditions of monitoring and control comparable to conditions of imprisonment. The client is subject to the will of and social intercourse with other people in his own home; he both knows it is necessary and offers resistance to the conditions. In short, the authors argue that the homecare service acts as a disciplining practice in modern society.

Nurses' attitudes towards support for and communication about sexual health—A qualitative study from the perspectives of oncological nurses

“…The theoretical concepts of power, disciplining and normalisation have through many years provided an alternative view for research about the medical clinic, professionals and patients (Campbell, 2011;Cook & Brunton, 2015;Glasdam, Praestegaard, & Henriksen, 2013;Jones, 2018;McCabe & Holmes, 2014;McCarthy, 2010;Rose, 1990Rose, , 1994). Foucault regarded power as a relation.…”

Patients' participation in decision‐making in the medical field – ‘projectification’ of patients in a neoliberal framed healthcare system

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