Living With the Health and Social Inequities of a Disability: A Critical Feminist Study

Clients living at home with chronic disabling conditions together with their caregivers, service providers, and policymakers face major challenges in optimizing health care. In this critical feminist interpretive study we examined the experiences of women receiving home care for chronic disabling conditions. Five themes emerged: struggling with the embodied limitations of disabling chronic conditions; actively seeking health; struggling with service limitations; seeking ways to manage; and living with isolation and marginalization. Having done this study, we learned that home care services do not always contribute sufficiently to the overall health and well-being of women living with chronic disabling conditions and, in fact, may negatively impact upon their health.

This study was through a research traineeship funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). The overview and conclusions contained in this article are those of the authors. No official endorsement by CIHR is intended, nor should it be inferred.