Expectations towards home care re-ablement in Danish municipalities
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 7 April 2015
Abstract
Purpose
Re-abling care of frail older people is highly on the agenda in several countries. The purpose of this paper is to have a closer look at the argumentation used for its establishment by local policy actors in the field and the kind of expectations towards the behaviour of frail older people it entails.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with 17 local policy actors in two Danish municipalities. The interviews have been analysed with the help of argumentative discourse analysis.
Findings
The most important argument for re-abling care appears to be grounded in economic reasons. However, a second, moral argument was found revolving around the older peoples’ activity, which contributes to the establishment of moral expectations towards frail older people to be active.
Research limitations/implications
As the goal of the study was to analyse understandings and values of key local actors, the implementation of re-ablement programmes and the users’ perspective were not studied.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the investigation of the shift from universal entitlement as a right to towards market rationalities in Danish elder care.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The research was carried out as a part of the project “Differences in the local organisation of elder care – reasons and dynamics” financed by the Danish Council for Independent Research, Copenhagen (Prinicpal Investigator: Per H. Jensen). However, the findings reported here are entirely the responsibility of the researcher. Thanks are due to Bettina Leibetseder for her insightful comments on an earlier version of the paper.
Citation
Fersch, B. (2015), "Expectations towards home care re-ablement in Danish municipalities", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 35 No. 3/4, pp. 126-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-06-2014-0045
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited