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The emotional labour of health-care assistants in inpatient dementia care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2013

SIMON BAILEY ,
KEZIA SCALES ,
JOANNE LLOYD ,
JUSTINE SCHNEIDER  and
ROB JONES
SIMON BAILEY*
Affiliation:
Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK.
KEZIA SCALES
Affiliation:
School of Sociology & Social Policy, University of Nottingham, UK.
JOANNE LLOYD
Affiliation:
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Wakefield, UK.
JUSTINE SCHNEIDER
Affiliation:
School of Sociology & Social Policy, University of Nottingham, UK.
ROB JONES
Affiliation:
School of Sociology & Social Policy, University of Nottingham, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Simon Bailey, Manchester Business School, Booth Street East, Manchester M15 6PB, UK E-mail: simon.bailey@mbs.ac.uk
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Abstract

Although there is much written on the emotional labour of nursing, there is little research grounded in the experience of so-called ‘unqualified’ care assistants. This paper is drawn from an ethnographic study conducted with care assistants on three dementia care wards in one mental health trust within the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS). We describe the emotional labour carried out by care assistants in their attempts to provide personalised care for people whose cognitive degeneration renders conventional relationship-building very difficult, produces unpredictable ‘challenging behaviour’ and calls into question the notion of ‘feeling rules’. This context requires the ability to strike a balance between emotional engagement and detachment, and it is the complexities of this relationship that are the focus of this paper, arguing that a degree of detachment is a prerequisite to engagement in this context. In conclusion, we argue that the contribution of care assistants in this context needs to be better acknowledged, supported and remunerated.

Keywords

emotional labourethnographydementiacare-giverscare-givingengagementdetachment
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , February 2015 , pp. 246 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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