A Major Collaborative Research Initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Pat Armstrong, PhD,Principal Investigator, York University

Who’s Involved 26 academic co-investigators

• 12 disciplines• Six countries

Five union partners Two employer association

partners Post-docs, graduate students Community and advocacy

groups

Our Approach

• to treat both providers and residents with dignity and respect

• to understand care as a relationship

• to take differences and equity into account

Four theme areas:

Approaches to Care

Work Organization

Accountability

Financing and

Ownership

Group members switch for years 4 to 6

Guiding Questions• What care approaches support long-term care as a viable, desirable

and equitable option for individuals, families and caregivers? • What kinds of work organization are most promising in meeting the

needs and balance the rights of residents, providers, families and communities?

• What promising practices to accountability nurture care and inspire quality workplace relations in long-term residential facilities?

• What financing and ownership models are promising in ensuring equitable access to quality long-term residential care while reducing the offloading of both material and other costs onto workers, employers, families or individuals?

Overarching Methods

Work organization

Account-ability

Approaches to Care

Financing and

Ownership

Layers:1. Mapping2. Design phase3. Rapid Ethnographies4. Data analysis and integration

Methodological Assumptions

• Interdisciplinary approaches apply different lens

• Fresh eyes help us see different aspects, collective work central

• Multiple methods capture complexity as well as multiple views

• Those who do the work provide an authentic picture

• Attend to noises and silences

• Some consistency and considerable flexibility

Why Promising Practices?

• Context matters, and at multiple levels. It includes political economy, geography, social and physical structures and history

• Conditions of work are conditions of care

• Entire range of players matter; researchers, managers, unions, volunteers, family, residents, all employees, representatives of families, residents, workers, regulators

Why Promising Practices?

• Relationships among different categories of workers are critical to care

• Gender, racialization, class, sexuality matter

• Time matters: time of day, of life, of job tenure; time for tasks

• Not only physical spaces and community locations but also sounds, light, smell, crowding, art, clothing

Why Promising Practices?

• Looking for promising practices also involves recognizing negative practices, asking for whom they are promising, under what conditions; being open to surprises

• Recognizing tensions and contradictions within and outside residences

Tensions• Medical vs social (including architecture)• Home vs institution (whose home?)• Regulations vs trust• Risk vs autonomy• Control vs responsibilization• Specialized vs general; culturally specific vs inclusive• Large vs small• Privacy vs community• Ability vs disability• Individual vs structures

THANK YOU