Promising practices in long term care: Can work organization treat both residents and providers with dignity and respect?
Pat Armstrong
Refereed Article, 2018
Baines, D., & Armstrong, P. (2018). Promising practices in long term care: Can work organization treat both residents and providers with dignity and respect? Social Work and Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory, 1(1), 1–26.
Rather than expose and indict shortcomings of the existing system, the author was recently involved in a study that sought to build a vision of what high quality residential care for the elderly could look like. Preliminary findings suggest that care is best fostered in contexts where care is understood as a relationship and where both residents and care workers are treated with dignity and respect. Drawing on qualitative data collected in six countries (Canada, US, UK, Sweden, Germany and Norway), this paper will explore forms of work organisation that fostered care relationships between staff and residents, and inspired quality care. The paper also argues that the conditions of work are the conditions of care and suggests promising practices to support both.