Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:27:01.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Caring in space: the boundaries between public and private spaces in Finnish adult foster care homes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2020

Emilia Leinonen Open the ORCID record for Emilia Leinonen [Opens in a new window]
Emilia Leinonen*
Affiliation:
Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: emilia.a.leinonen@jyu.fi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore a hybrid community-based form of care for older people called adult foster care. In the article, the nature of the foster care home as a place of care is explored from the foster carers’ point-of-view. It is based on an interview study of 12 foster carers. In this article, the theoretical frameworks from human geography and work–family research are combined in order to analyse the boundaries between private family-life and public work-life in the particular space of the foster care home. The research questions are: What kinds of public and private spaces exist in adult foster care homes? What kinds of boundaries separate (a) the public and private spaces and (b) the foster care home and the outside world? The findings suggest that foster care homes are very complex socio-spatial places of care, in which the questions of power (who can do what and when in a certain space), the re-organisation of home, and the division of private and public spaces all contest the idea of home as a mere ‘safe haven’ from the pressures of work life. Different boundaries and boundary management strategies enabled the foster carers to regard their place of living and working as their home, even though it had altered to a place of care of ‘strangers’.

Keywords

adult foster careFinlandpublic and privateboundarieswork and family
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , May 2021 , pp. 1184 - 1201
Copyright
Copyright © The Author, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angus, J, Kontos, P, Dyck, I, McKeever, P and Poland, B (2005) The personal significance of home: habitus and the experience of long-term home care. Sociology of Health and Illness 27, 161–187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anttonen, A and Karsio, O (2016) Eldercare service redesign in Finland: deinstitutionalization of long-term care. Journal of Social Service Research 42, 151–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowlby, S, Gregory, S and McKie, L (1997) Doing home: patriarchy, caring, and space. Women's Studies International Forum 20, 343–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V and Clarke, V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brookes, N and Callaghan, L (2013) What next for Shared Lives? Family-based support as a potential option for older people. Journal of Care Services Management 7, 87–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brookes, N, Palmer, S and Callaghan, L (2016) ‘I live with other people and not alone’: a survey of the views and experiences of older people using Shared Lives (adult placement). Working with Older People 20, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callaghan, L, Brookes, N and Palmer, S (2017) Older people receiving family-based support in the community: a survey of quality of life among users of ‘Shared Lives’ in England. Health and Social Care in the Community 25, 1655–1666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, S (2000) Work/family border theory: a new theory of work/family balance. Human Relations 53, 747–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloutier, D, Martin-Matthews, A, Byrne, K and Wolse, F (2015) The space between: using ‘relational ethics’ and ‘relational space’ to explore relationship-building between care providers and care recipients in the home space. Social & Cultural Geography 16, 764–782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cresswell, T (2004) Place: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Daly, M (2002) Care as a good for social policy. Journal of Social Policy 31, 251–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyck, I, Kontos, P, Angus, J and McKeever, P (2005) The home as a site for long-term care: meanings and management of bodies and spaces. Health & Place 11, 173–185.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Exley, C and Allen, D (2007) A critical examination of home care: end of life care as an illustrative case. Social Science & Medicine 65, 2317–2327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finlex (2015) Act on Adult Foster Care (Act No. 263/2015). Available at http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2015/20150263.Google Scholar
Finnish Federation of Foster Care Associations (2018) Ikäihmisten perhehoito [Foster Care for Older People]. Available at https://www.perhehoitoliitto.fi/perhehoito/ikaihmiset.Google Scholar
Frericks, P, Jensen, P and Pfau-Effinger, B (2013) Social rights and employment rights related to family care: family care regimes in Europe. Journal of Aging Studies 29, 66–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geissler, B and Pfau-Effinger, B (2005) Change in European care arrangements. In Pfau-Effinger, B and Geissler, B (eds), Care and Social Integration in European Societies. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 3–20.Google Scholar
Goffman, E (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Hakkarainen, P, Kuukkanen, M and Piispanen, H (2014) Perhehoidon tietopaketti [Information Package of Adult Foster Care]. Jyväskylä, Finland: Perhehoitoliitto ry.Google Scholar
Jolanki, O, Leinonen, E, Rajaniemi, J, Rappe, E, Räsänen, T, Teittinen, O and Topo, P (2017) Asumisen yhteisöllisyys ja hyvä vanhuus [The Sense of Community in Housing and Good Old Age] (Government's Analysis, Assessment, and Research Publication Series No. 47/2017). Helsinki: Prime Minister's Office.Google Scholar
Knijn, T and Kremer, M (1997) Gender and the caring dimension of the welfare states: towards inclusive citizenship. Social Politics 4, 328–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kröger, T and Bagnato, A (2017) Care for older people in early twenty-first-century Europe: dimensions and directions of change. In Martinelli, F, Anttonen, A and Mätzke, M (eds), Social Services Disrupted: Changes, Challenges and Policy Implications for Europe in Times of Austerity. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 201–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leinonen, E (2017) Jotain uutta, jotain vanhaa, jotain lainattua – ikääntyneiden perhehoito Suomessa [Something new, something old, something borrowed – adult foster care for older people in Finland]. Gerontologia 31, 210–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leinonen, E (2018) Tensions and resilience – the experiences of adult foster care workers in Finland. International Journal of Care and Caring 2, 181–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahmood, A and Martin-Matthews, A (2008) Dynamics of care work. Boundary management and relationship issues for home support workers and elderly clients. In Martin-Matthews, A and Phillips, J (eds), Aging and Caring at the Intersection of Work and Home Life: Blurring the Boundaries. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis, pp. 21–42.Google Scholar
Martin-Mathews, A (2007) Situating ‘home’ at the nexus of the public and private spheres. Ageing, gender and home support work in Canada. Current Sociology 55, 229–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milligan, C (2000) Bearing the burden: towards a restructured geography of caring. Area 32, 49–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milligan, C (2005) From home to ‘home’: situating emotions within the caregiving experience. Environment and Planning A 37, 2105–2120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milligan, C (2009) There's No Place Like Home: Place and Care in an Ageing Society (Health Geography Book Series). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Milligan, C (2014) Place and informal care in an ageing society: reviewing the state of the art in geographical gerontology. Progress in Geography 34, 1558–1576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Environment (2013) Housing Development Programme for Older Population for 2013–2017. Available at http://www.ym.fi/en-US/Housing/Programmes_and_strategies/The_development_programme_for_housing_for_elderly_people.Google Scholar
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (2019) Perhehoidon palkkiot ja korvaukset [Care Fees and Compensation of Expenses of Adult Foster Care]. Available at https://stm.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/kuntainfo-perhehoidon-palkkiot-ja-korvaukset-vuonna-2019.Google Scholar
Mollica, R, Booth, M, Gray, C and Sims-Kastelein, K (2008) Adult Foster Care: A Resource for Older Adults. Available at http://www.nashp.org/sites/default/files/AFC_resource.pdf.Google Scholar
Nippert-Eng, C (1996) Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries Through Everyday Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Official Statistics of Finland (2018) Population Projection. Appendix Table 1. Population by Age in 1900 to 2070 (Years 2020 to 2070: Projection). Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Available at https://www.stat.fi/til/vaenn/2018/vaenn_2018_2018-11-16_tau_001_en.html.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2013) A Good Life in Old Age? Monitoring and Improving Quality in Long-term Care (OECD Health Policy Studies). Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Paying for Senior Care (2019) Adult Foster Care for the Elderly & Financial Assistance Options. Available at https://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/paying-for-adult-foster-care.html.Google Scholar
Phillips, J and Martin-Matthews, A (2008) Blurring the boundaries: aging and caring at the intersection of work and home life. In Martin-Matthews, A and Phillips, J (eds), Aging and Caring at the Intersection of Work and Home Life: Blurring Boundaries. New York, NY: Psychology Press, pp. 245–254.Google Scholar
Sims-Gould, J, Byrne, K, Beck, C and Martin-Matthews, A (2013) Workers’ experiences of crises in the delivery of home support services to older clients: a qualitative study. Journal of Applied Gerontology 32, 31–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skinner, M, Andrews, G and Cutchin, M (2018) Introducing geographical gerontology. In Skinner, M, Andrews, G and Cutchin, M (eds), Geographical Gerontology: Perspectives, Concepts, Approaches. London: Routledge, pp. 3–10.Google Scholar
Sotkanet Indicator Bank (2019) Perhehoidossa olleet vanhukset 31.12., kunnan kustantamat palvelut [Older People in Adult Foster Care 31.12. Funded by the Municipalities]. Available at https://bit.ly/36J1tl9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuan, YF (1977) Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Twigg, J (1999) The spatial ordering of care: public and private in bathing support at home. Sociology of Health & Illness 21, 381–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twigg, J (2008) Clashing temporalities: time, home and the bodywork of care. In Martin-Matthews, A and Phillips, J (eds), Aging and Caring at the Intersection of Work and Home Life: Blurring Boundaries. New York, NY: Psychology Press, pp. 229–244.Google Scholar
Vilkko, A (2000) Riittävästi koti [Home enough]. Janus 8, 213–230.Google Scholar
Vilkko, A (2010) Kohteena koti [Home as a subject]. In Vilkko, A, Suikkanen, A and Järvinen-Tassopoulos, J (eds), Kotia paikantamassa [Locating Home]. Rovaniemi, Finland: Lapland University Press, pp. 11–31.Google Scholar
Wiles, J (2003) Daily geographies of caregivers: mobility, routine, scale. Social Science & Medicine 57, 1307–1325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiles, J (2005) Conceptualizing place in the care of older people: the contributions of geographical gerontology. Journal of Clinical Nursing 14, 100–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, A (2002) Changing geographies of care: employing the concept of therapeutic landscapes as a framework in examining home space. Social Science & Medicine 55, 141–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed