Personal assistants: Ideals of social care‐work and consequences for the Norwegian personal assistance scheme¹

Thanks to Ole Petter Askheim, Jan Andersen and the referees of the journal for valuable comments on earlier versions of this article.

Abstract

Ideal models of care change over time. In the case of personal assistance services, the major actors are influenced by different ideals of social care work. This article is based on a survey among personal assistants in Norway, with a central finding that assistants emphasise, to various degrees, the ideal of caring rationality or a service orientation model The personal assistance scheme has many inbuilt dilemmas, such as user‐control in contrast to co‐determination of assistants, as well as continuity of help in contrast to continuity of relations. This article discusses whether matching assistants and users with mutual interests and similar expectations can help to reduce the inbuilt systemic dilemmas.

Notes

Thanks to Ole Petter Askheim, Jan Andersen and the referees of the journal for valuable comments on earlier versions of this article.