‘When morals and markets collide’: Challenges to an Ethic of Care in Aged Residential Care

ABSTRACT

Recent concerns about the quality of care within aged residential care (ARC) highlight a sector in crisis. Many Western nations are experiencing rising life expectancy rates, an increase in the number of elderly people as a proportion of the population and an intensification of demand for ARC. Growth in the provision of formalised care has come under scrutiny in New Zealand and in other developed countries, largely because of complaints about inadequate caring practices, particularly in rest homes. Responsibility for instances involving inadequate care is often placed on individual nurses, general practitioners, managers and caregivers, with little acknowledgement of the wider context in which ARC is situated. In this paper we examine how tensions between state regulation, markets and localised rest home practices impact upon an ethics of care. We conclude that systemic issues relating to the regulation and funding of rest home care, when combined with a market ethos in the provision of services, does not adequately support the creation of an environment in which an ethics of care is a priority.

KEYWORDS:

• Rest home
• aged residential care
• neoliberalism
• ethic of care
• social gerontology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.