Whose Right to a “Reasonable Level of Living”? Spouses with Differing Care Needs in Swedish Nursing Homes

Torgé, Cristina Joy

doi:10.18848/2576-5310/cgp/v08i01/45-60

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In recent years, it is increasingly possible for couples with differing care needs to move together to residential care facilities, which prevents involuntary separation (Kemp, 2008(Kemp, , 2012). Yet, research about this and its implications is still lacking (Torgé, 2018). This article fills a gap in the research, by describing results from a unique project that explores the spouse and staff experiences when relatively healthy spouses cohabit with and provide care to their partners in nursing homes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Being in-Between”: Spouses That Cohabit With and Provide Care for Their Partners in Nursing Homes

Torgé

2018

J Appl Gerontol

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It is increasingly possible for couples with differing care needs to move to nursing homes together. To our knowledge, this is the first study about spousal caregiving in this context. This study explores spouse and staff experiences when relatively healthy spouses cohabit with and provide care to their partners in Swedish nursing homes. The overarching theme, “being in-between,” reflects the spouse’s overlapping role transition and the staff’s unfamiliarity with the spouse’s role. The spouses are both “insiders” and “outsiders” and are torn between maintaining and letting go of caregiving. Meanwhile, the staff express concern about the spouse’s need for respite yet being constantly present, and struggle to balance the staff’s and the spouse’s control of the caregiving situation. This article provides insight into the challenges experienced by spouses who accompany their partners to residential care and how to best support them in this unfamiliar role.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Being in-Between”: Spouses That Cohabit With and Provide Care for Their Partners in Nursing Homes

Torgé

2018

J Appl Gerontol

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“…The second author, a social gerontologist, conducted one-month long field observations at each site combined with semi-structured interviews with the older couples (11 interviews of 6 couples), semi-structured interviews with the co-habiting spouses (6 interviews) and unstructured interviews with nursing staff (15 interviews). Results are reported elsewhere (Torgé, 2018(Torgé, , 2020. The interview guide did include questions like "do you feel that this place is your home?".…”

Section: Study 2: Residential Facilities For Older Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“They say this is a home”: the challenge of “home” in residential care settings for old and young

Börjesson

Torgé

2021

J Hous and the Built Environ

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In this article, we want to bolster a critical discussion of how the “home” is used in research on residential care, and additionally make sense of young and old residents’ feelings of resistance, through the lens of a critical geography of home. We illustrate how the home ideal might be provocative and frustrating for the residents, although previous studies point out that the ideal is used by staff and in policy to reassure residents of a sense of belonging and mastery. Examples from interviews with young unaccompanied boys as well as older residents living in residential care have been used and the analysis resulted in two themes: “Residents’ conflicting experiences of space” (shared space, restricted space and regulated space, and “Residents’ feelings of homelessness” (transitional space and encroached space). How the residents themselves understand the space that is called their home and why their home can stir ambivalent or negative feelings of isolation, exclusion, and homelessness, is relevant in order to avoid romanticizing home. Residents’ understanding of home can be different from the staff, a reminder that home is a much more complex notion than the rosy ideal.

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“…Yet for some, the increasing care and housing needs of one partner can result in involuntary separation and living apart through a care home move (Glasier and Arbeau, 2019). Unlike Sweden, where couplehood is accommodated in these circumstances (Torge, 2018), in the UK a care home move almost always separates couples. With the increased likelihood of progressive and chronic illnesses with age (House of Lords, 2013), more couples may likely find themselves in this situation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enduring commitment: older couples living apart

Gopinath

Holland

Peace

2023

Families, Relationships and Societies

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As people live longer, there is an increasing possibility of couples becoming separated because one partner moves into a care home. Our qualitative mixed-method pilot study in an English town involved eight married couples aged over 65 years to explore experiences and practices of couplehood in these circumstances. This article focuses on the most striking emergent element of expressed couplehood in these now challenged long-term relationships: commitment. Drawing on in-depth (biographical) individual and joint interviews, observations and emotion maps, this article explores how separation affected the couples’ current sense and enactment of commitment to the relationship. Commitment in the partnership is now often one-sided. How committed the community-living partner feels – and its enactment – is heavily shaped by the shared history of happy and unhappy periods in the relationships, current contextual constraints, and family and institutional support.

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Whose Right to a “Reasonable Level of Living”? Spouses with Differing Care Needs in Swedish Nursing Homes

Cited by 6 publications

References 32 publications

“Being in-Between”: Spouses That Cohabit With and Provide Care for Their Partners in Nursing Homes

“Being in-Between”: Spouses That Cohabit With and Provide Care for Their Partners in Nursing Homes

“They say this is a home”: the challenge of “home” in residential care settings for old and young

Enduring commitment: older couples living apart

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