What price early discharge? Informal caregiving in home-based rehabilitation
- Authors: Dow, Briony
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Over recent years there has been an international trend towards shorter hospital stays, and the provision of alternative health services in the home (Philp, 1996). This paper focuses on one example of this trend, home-based rehabilitation. Other examples are hospital in the home programs (Gunnel, Coast, Richards, Peters, Pounsford & Darlow, 2000) and domiciliary midwife services offered to women discharged early from maternity hospital (Thompson, Roberts, Currie & Ellwood, 2000). In Victoria, homebased rehabilitation has been available as an alternative to hospital-based care since 1995 when the first home-based rehabilitation program was established at the Greenvale campus of the North-West Hospital. Since then another ten programs have been established in Victoria as alternatives to in-patient care. Similar programs have also been established in other Australian states and overseas (for example, in Western Australia, Bairstow, Asche, Heavens & Lithgo, 1997; and in Sweden, Widén Holmqvist, de Pedro Cuesta, Holm & Kostulas, 1995).
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000513
- Authors: Dow, Briony
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Over recent years there has been an international trend towards shorter hospital stays, and the provision of alternative health services in the home (Philp, 1996). This paper focuses on one example of this trend, home-based rehabilitation. Other examples are hospital in the home programs (Gunnel, Coast, Richards, Peters, Pounsford & Darlow, 2000) and domiciliary midwife services offered to women discharged early from maternity hospital (Thompson, Roberts, Currie & Ellwood, 2000). In Victoria, homebased rehabilitation has been available as an alternative to hospital-based care since 1995 when the first home-based rehabilitation program was established at the Greenvale campus of the North-West Hospital. Since then another ten programs have been established in Victoria as alternatives to in-patient care. Similar programs have also been established in other Australian states and overseas (for example, in Western Australia, Bairstow, Asche, Heavens & Lithgo, 1997; and in Sweden, Widén Holmqvist, de Pedro Cuesta, Holm & Kostulas, 1995).
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000513
The invisible contract: Shifting care from the hospital to the home
- Authors: Dow, Briony , McDonald, John
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Health Review Vol. 31, no. 2 (May 2007), p. 193-202
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The ageing population and associated burgeoning health care costs have resulted in a shift of care from institutional settings to home and community-based care. As one example, rehabilitation-in-the-home (RITH) programs are becoming increasingly prevalent. These programs either substitute or supplement in-hospital treatment by providing multidisciplinary rehabilitation and support services in the client's own home. This paper investigates the impact of RITH programs on informal carers. Semi-structured interviews carried out with caregivers and staff revealed a complex and contradictory interpretation of informal caring. Analysis of carers' interviews revealed: an assumption by themselves and others (including RITH staff) that they would provide care; the intimate, arduous and relentless work of caring; lack of consultation about discharge; lack of recognition and reimbursement; and low levels of program support for them as carers. Carers are integral to the successful rehabilitation of the client, but they occupy a marginal status within the program. An invisible contract consigns to them substantial care-work that was previously provided by the hospital. Informal carers in RITH programs can be seen as disenfranchised care contractors. This has implications for policy makers, program managers and researchers.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003005828
- Authors: Dow, Briony , McDonald, John
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Health Review Vol. 31, no. 2 (May 2007), p. 193-202
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The ageing population and associated burgeoning health care costs have resulted in a shift of care from institutional settings to home and community-based care. As one example, rehabilitation-in-the-home (RITH) programs are becoming increasingly prevalent. These programs either substitute or supplement in-hospital treatment by providing multidisciplinary rehabilitation and support services in the client's own home. This paper investigates the impact of RITH programs on informal carers. Semi-structured interviews carried out with caregivers and staff revealed a complex and contradictory interpretation of informal caring. Analysis of carers' interviews revealed: an assumption by themselves and others (including RITH staff) that they would provide care; the intimate, arduous and relentless work of caring; lack of consultation about discharge; lack of recognition and reimbursement; and low levels of program support for them as carers. Carers are integral to the successful rehabilitation of the client, but they occupy a marginal status within the program. An invisible contract consigns to them substantial care-work that was previously provided by the hospital. Informal carers in RITH programs can be seen as disenfranchised care contractors. This has implications for policy makers, program managers and researchers.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003005828
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