Expanding the Conceptualization of Support in Low-Wage Carework: The Case of Home Care Aides and Client Death

Emma K. Tsui, Marita LaMonica, Maryam Hyder, Paul Landsbergis, Jennifer Zelnick and Sherry Baron
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Emma K. Tsui: Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY 10027, USA
Marita LaMonica: Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY 10027, USA
Maryam Hyder: Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Paul Landsbergis: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, State University of New York (SUNY)-Downstate Health Sciences University, New York, NY 11203, USA
Jennifer Zelnick: Graduate School of Social Work, Touro College, New York, NY 10001, USA
Sherry Baron: Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY 11365, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Home care aides are a rapidly growing, non-standard workforce who face numerous health risks and stressors on the job. While research shows that aides receive limited support from their agency employers, few studies have explored the wider range of support that aides use when navigating work stress and considered the implications of these arrangements. To investigate this question, we conducted 47 in-depth interviews with 29 home care aides in New York City, focused specifically on aides’ use of support after client death. Theories of work stress, the social ecological framework, and feminist theories of care informed our research. Our analysis demonstrates aides’ extensive reliance on personal sources of support and explores the challenges this can create in their lives and work, and, potentially, for their communities. We also document aides’ efforts to cultivate support stemming from their home-based work environments. Home care aides’ work stress thus emerges as both an occupational health and a community health issue. While employers should carry responsibility for preventing and mitigating work stress, moving toward health equity for marginalized careworkers requires investing in policy-level and community-level supports to bolster employer efforts, particularly as the home care industry becomes increasingly fragmented and non-standard.

Keywords: occupational stress; social support; home care aides; carework; social ecological framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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