Under Tension: Formal Care Work with Older People

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to introduce and discuss different tensions that currently affect formal care services and care work with older people. The chapter will examine tensions at the macro-level between institutional actors, as well as meso-level professional tensions and micro-level tensions between individual actors. Formal care work refers here to paid health or social care work provided through public or private employment (see also Anttonen and Zechner in this volume). Formal care work is situated within the formal economy, which means that informal care work, undeclared grey market care work or semiformal hybrid forms of care work are not included in this concept. This chapter focuses on formal care work with older people in particular, and the terms ‘formal care work’ and ‘care work’ as well as ‘formal care workers’ and ‘care workers’ are used interchangeably throughout the chapter. This is not intended to disregard or belittle the importance of forms of care work other than formal, but simply to save ink.