CareSam:et grænseoverskridende samarbejde der udfordrer ideer om ældrepleje ; CareSam:A Cross-border Collaboration Contesting notions of elderly Care

In: Liveng , A & Christensen , J 2016 , ' CareSam : A Cross-border Collaboration Contesting notions of elderly Care ' , Scientific Journal TILTAI/Bridges , vol. 73 , no. 1 , pp. 207-222 . https://doi.org/10.15181/tbb.v73i1.1274

Abstract

This article presents findings and discussions generated on the basis of the Danish-Swedish development project CareSam. The article will on the one hand focus on how work in groups consisting of representatives from different levels in the elderly care sector at one time served as learning spaces and cultural encounters in which established notions of older people and elderly care were challenged and discussed. Inspired by action research these challenges were brought forth through discussions of and through insight in practical experiences. On the other hand it will focus on the tendencies to narrow the diversity of perceptions of elderly people and their care, which were also seen in the project. These tendencies partly originated in the formulated aim of the project to raise awareness of elderly care work, which led to stories in which the meaningfulness of care work were honored. The project included the production of a film, in which caregivers formulate a positive story about older people and working with the elderly. Simultaneously the narrowing tendencies can be seen as reflecting an anxiety towards more straining dimensions of working with people in the latest part of their lives; dimensions which were also present in the groups. Departing from the interviews presented in the CareSam film and parts of the empirical material produced in connection to the work in the groups this paper will ask whether it is possible to represent care work for elderly people with all the ambiguities it holds: How can we as researchers represent both meaningfulness and straining dimensions of care work? Can we avoid either supporting Florence Nightingale-ideals or cementing negative cultural perceptions of help-needing elderly and the people who support them in everyday life? In answering these questions and thereby reflecting on our own work process we in this article finally apply a care research, a learning theoretical and a political perspective. Hereby the article wishes to formulate a methodological point: In case of ...