To Coordinate Information in Practice: Dilemmas and Strategies in Care Management for Citizens with Dementia

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study, based on 19 interviews with care managers, explores the experiences of care-managers involved in assessing the need for social services for people with dementia. The study shows that social workers, as care managers, face several dilemmas in their practice concerning people with dementia, in relation to the exchange of information and in regards to conflicting interests between different actors involved in the assessment of the need for support for people with dementia. Strategies used to handle problematic situations that arise in their work are using other sources for information (e.g., relatives and actors from other professions), persuading, and pursuing creative forms of consent. However, the study shows that dilemmas and strategies used generate other, prominently moral, dilemmas for care managers in their practice, which relate to participation and self-determination by the person with dementia. The study shed light on the problematic situation for care managers in their work to coordinate information and further the new “realities“ that they encounter as well as on how to handle these new situations. This study suggests possible ways to improve the everyday work of care managers, as well as how policies concerning social work and people with dementia can be improved.     

The Effects of Unemployment on Non-monetary Job Quality in Europe: The Moderating Role of Economic Situation and Labor Market Policies

Social Indicators Research - Previous research has illustrated that unemployment not only has short-term, but also medium-term negative effects on workers’ careers. While most studies have...     

Persuasion under ambiguity

Theory and Decision - This paper introduces a receiver who perceives ambiguity in a binary model of Bayesian persuasion. The sender has a well-defined prior, while the receiver considers an...     

Ageing and exercise: building body capital in old age

Background

Research that provides better understanding of the motivational processes in older age to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle is sought after. We apply theoretical approaches to cultural capital, active and healthy aging health to shed light on the women’s experiences in maintaining physical capabilities through an active lifestyle, and thereby facilitating their own inclusion in society. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore why older home dwelling women over the age of 70 years or more spend time in physical exercise and their experiences about the importance of participating in group exercise for their daily life.This paper reports on a qualitative study based on interviews with 16 older women aged 70 years or more and regularly attending group exercise classes in the community at an established workout center. The data were analyzed the data using an inductive content analysis approach.

Results

Three overreaching and interrelated themes emerged from the interviews: “Building body capital for independence”, “Building body capital to maintain vitality and being in control” and “Building resources for social interaction”. The findings suggest that group exercise is important for building body capital. The group exercise helped the women in building bodily ability to manage everyday life, maintain vitality, being in control, pursue social interaction and live independently. These body resources were important for these older women’s experience of the manageability and meaningfulness of daily life.

Conclusion

This study has provided insights into older women’s understanding and experiences of the challenges of everyday life within a theoretical framework of cultural capital and health. The women acquired cultural health capital, and more specifically body capital, by participating in the group exercise classes. The women’s investment in body capital through regular physical activity created resources which facilitated social participation. Therefore professionals need to be aware of this when performing group exercise.

     

Academic writing in social work education: reflections from an international classroom

The affordances of processing subject knowledge through academic writing are rarely explicitly realised in social work education. In this article, we highlight the link between instructors’ efforts to facilitate students’ academic writing and students’ perceived increase of knowledge in the subject of social work in an international context. Based on instructors’ and students’ reflections collected before, during, and after a course, we aimed to answer the following questions: in what way can academic writing support students’ learning in social work? What are students’ reflections on the pedagogical model involving academic writing? The theoretical framework for the analysis was based on learning theories focusing on collaborative learning. The main conclusion is that the instructors’ awareness of how to scaffold students’ ability to write in an academic context and to develop the students’ understanding of social work in a local and global context is an important factor in student learning.     

Facing conflict: patterns of relationships amongst Lithuanian social workers in the workplace and the role of supervision

The complexity of the Lithuanian social work profession is analysed in this paper. The aim of the research presented is to identify the patterns of relationships that Lithuanian social workers develop in the workplace when facing conflict. The research findings suggest that social work presupposes instability, mobility, fluidity, risks and consequently conflict and multiple emotional reactions from those involved. The complexity of social work, evoking various professional risks and conflicts, anticipates emotional reactions from social workers, such as anger and avoidance. Professional conflict and change can become a resource of positive emotional reactions and a stimulus for the development of the organisation. Professional relationships that are based on equality, openness and participation, even in situation of change or conflict can cultivate energy, creativity and enthusiasm. For conflict within an organisation to be resolved, external support that is methodologically grounded and professional is needed. Supervision can help to recognise the interrelation of patterns of relationships in the workplace when facing conflict, through reflection on one's professional functioning.     

Trends in current east‐west migration and the need for new policies

This article highlights the evolution of East‐West movements of people since the revolutionary changes in the late 1980s. It then suggests an eight‐point pan‐European cooperation programme with a view to avoiding a situation in which a surge in East‐ West movements becomes a destabilizing political factor in Europe.     

Diversity management in preschools using a critical incident approach

Using the critical incident approach, preschool teachers at 10 preschools in Sweden were asked to describe their work with respect to ethnic and cultural diversity. The study attempted to provide insights that go beyond commonly used models of intercultural sensitivity and intercultural competence (e.g. Gudykunst and Kim; Landis, Bennett, and Bennett). Four different understandings and approaches to ethnic and cultural diversity were discernible in the empirical material (i.e. ‘instrumental,’ ‘co-productive,’ ‘facilitative proactive,’ and ‘agitative proactive’). The data suggest that preschool teachers, in order to be interculturally competent, need to work systematically with intercultural pedagogy, intercultural communication skills, and with their discursive awareness. Moreover, it is concluded that if preschool teachers fail to scrutinize their own values, modes of behavior, and a-priori understanding of what ‘is’ cultural behavior, they may sustain cultural stereotypes.     

Keeping the family balance – adult daughters’ experiences of roles and strategies when supporting caring fathers

The Scandinavian countries represent a progressive approach to gender equality and transitions of traditional gender roles but little attention has been paid to gender equality in old age and how normative constructions of gender intersect in the lives of family carers. The aim of this study was to understand how adult daughters experience their roles and strategies when supporting fathers caring for an ill mother. A sample of eight daughters shared their experiences through in-depth interviews. The findings show that the daughters provide substantial and crucial effort and are intimately involved in the caring for their father and the sole contributors towards the emotional support of their fathers. They tend to devote a lot of energy towards picturing their family as ‘normal’ in terms of the family members adopting traditional roles and activities inside as well as outside the family context. In conclusion, the lack of understanding about gender as a ‘norm producer’ is something that needs to be further elaborated upon in order for professionals to encounter norm-breaking behaviours. The daughters’ position as family carers is often assumed and taken for granted since the intersecting structures that impact on the situations of the daughters are largely invisible.