Manoeuvring challenging demands: care managers, the Free Choice System and older users of home care services with reduced decision-making capacity

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe and analyse how care managers experience and manage the Swedish Free Choice System in relation to older users of home care services with reduced decision-making capacity. The empirical data were generated by focus group interviews with care managers working in local eldercare authorities that had implemented the Free Choice System. The findings reveal that care managers used various strategies, and justifications for them, based on various coexisting logics: the market logic; the logic of public administration; and the logic of care.