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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 4 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • In this unit, we are going to look at a number of situations which put a strain on the idea that caring is just 'being ordinary', including times when people are giving intimate care. In these special...
 

Crossing boundaries: a case study

  • Crossing boundaries: a case study Resource
  • A number of situations put a strain on the idea that caring is just an extension of 'being ordinary'. These include times when people are giving intimate care. Since the normal rules do not apply in these...
 

1 The strains of intimate care

  • 1 The strains of intimate care Resource
  • Intimate care involves stepping over people's usual boundaries. It takes us out of familiar territory in terms of how we relate to each other. It necessitates breaking the usual rules about how to behave...
 

2 Silences and concealment

  • 2 Silences and concealment Resource
  • Anthropologists and psychoanalysts use the term ‘taboo’ to describe forbidden activities, feelings or relationships. All societies seem to have particular rules and rituals to deal with bodily functions,...
 

3 Women's work

  • 3 Women's work Resource
  • Gender and power play a role in keeping issues like this out of the public arena. One reason for women's comparative silence in our culture is that more of what they do is defined as ‘private’ or ‘personal’....
 

4 Distance and closeness

  • 4 Distance and closeness Resource
  • A lot of emotional labour is concerned with getting the right balance between being close, friendly and warm, and maintaining a proper distance. Lawler writes about learning emotional control by sticking...
 

5 Developing agreed ways of working

  • 5 Developing agreed ways of working Resource
  • Although it may be undesirable to cut across the informality of care relationships by making unnecessary rules or regulations, intimate care is clearly one site where things can go wrong. There is a narrow...
 

6 Unofficial work cultures

  • 6 Unofficial work cultures Resource
  • The whole issue of bodily care and bodily functions tends to be driven underground and then emerges in jokes or crudeness. Picture this scene, a few months after Marie has started, when she has become...
 

7 Establishing boundaries

  • 7 Establishing boundaries Resource
  • Imagine now that you are Marie's manager and you decide to call in at the unit on your way back from a day out. You often drop in unannounced to make sure everything is OK and because it is the only chance...
 

References and Acknowledgements

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