Caring Class

Richard Schweid

Description

The number of elderly and disabled Americans in need of home health care is increasing annually, even as the pool of people-almost always women-willing to do this job gets smaller and smaller. The Caring Class takes readers inside the reality of home health care by following the lives of women training and working as home health aides in the South Bronx.Richard Schweid examines home health care in detail, focusing on the women who tend to our elderly and disabled loved ones and how we fail to value their work. They are paid minimum wage so that we might be absent, getting on with our own lives. The book calls for a rethinking of home health care and explains why changes are urgent: the current system offers neither a good way to live nor a good way to die. By improving the job of home health aide, Schweid shows, we can reduce income inequality and create a pool of qualified, competent home health care providers who would contribute to the well-being of us all. The Caring Class also serves as a guide into the world of our home health care system. Nearly 50 million US families look after an elderly or disabled loved one. This book explains the issues and choices they face. Schweid explores the narratives, histories, and people behind home health care in the United States, examining how we might improve the lives of both those who receive care and those who provide it.

Sujets

• Médecine
• Industrial relations

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501754128
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Caring Class

Avolumeintheseries TheCultureandPoliticsofHealthCareWork EditedbySuzanneGordonandSiobanNelson

Foralistofbooksintheseries,visitourwebsiteatcornellpress.cornell.edu.

TheCaringClass

HomeHealthAidesinCrisis

RichardSchweid

ILR Press an imprint of Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright©2021byCornellUniversity

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Firstpublished2021byCornellUniversityPress

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData

Names:Schweid,Richard,1946–author. Title:Thecaringclass:homehealthaidesincrisis/RichardSchweid. Description:Ithaca[NewYork]:ILRPress,animprintofCornell UniversityPress,2021.|Series:Thecultureandpoliticsofhealth carework|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2020018258(print)|LCCN2020018259(ebook)| ISBN9781501754104 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501754128 (pdf) | ISBN9781501754111 (epub) Subjects:LCSH:Homecareservices—NewYork(State)—NewYork.| Homehealth aides—New York (State)—New York. | Home health aides—Trainingof—New York (State)—New York. | Older people— Home care—New York(State)—New York. Classification:LCCRA645.36.N7S392021(print)|LCCRA645.36.N7 (ebook) | DDC 362.14—dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020018258 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020018259

.

Dedicatedtoallthehomehealthaideswhoaredoingagoodjobof making people’s lives easier on a daily basis

MypresentpurposeistowritetoyousomethingaboutOldAge. For I desire that you and I may be lightened of this burden, which we have in common, of old age already pressing upon us or drawing close at hand.

Cicero,O N O LD A GE ,44 BC

I like to say that there are only four kinds of people in the world— those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.

Rosalyn Carter, congressional testimony, 2011

Introduction

Contents

1.NotfortheFainthearted

2.Observe,Record,andReport

3.HomeCareforSale

4.ParasitesoftheElderly

5.GraduationDay

6.WelcometoTheseShores

7.“IDon’tDoItfortheMoney”

Acknowledgments

Notes

SuggestedReading

Index

1

6

28

48

77

102

124

150

157

159

171

175

TheCaringClass