Dignity equals distance? Pursuing dignity in care for older adults

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11199865
AutoresAgnete Meldgaard Hansen (0000-0001-9867-7586, Roskilde University, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume43
Fascículo5
Páginas1003-1021
Data de publicação2023-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAgeing and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0144-686X • E-ISSN: 1469-1779
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0144686x21000891
OpenAlexW3181230145
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas49

This paper explores how dignity is articulated and pursued by care workers in two currently prominent policy initiatives seeking to reform Danish care services for older people. Based on ethnographic case studies of ‘reablement’ practices and the use of ‘welfare technologies’, the paper shows how these attempts to create dignified care services transform interactions between care recipients and care workers. The analysis is inspired by a socio-material perspective on dignity as ‘crafted’ and ‘co-laboured’ in daily practices, in an interplay between multiple human and non-human actors. In the cases studied, dignity is articulated as closely related to older people's increasing autonomy and independence of formal care, and is pursued through enhancing care recipients’ self-care ability, and through technological automation of care tasks. However, these articulations and pursuits of dignity do not stand alone. When everyday care practices are closely examined, dignity is also pursued by care workers as increased co-operation and equality between care workers and care recipients, as de-objectification, and as promotion of enjoyment and quality of life. In these practices, care is ambivalently positioned as both a potential threat to dignity, and as a prerequisite to achieving it. The paper concludes by discussing the risks of policy agendas pursuing a narrow understanding of dignity as simply independence of care

Death with dignity · Dignity · Political science · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Law · Medicine · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues · Patient Dignity and Privacy · Psychology · Gerontology