Labour Crisis in Long-term Care: The Right to Care [Hardback]

An essential volume that smartly reframes the current long-term care crisis as a labor force crisis. Drawing on feminist theory, the authors thoughtfully redefine care as a relationship built on the collective right to receive and to provide quality care. They carefully document how and why quality care for the largely female nursing home population depends heavily on the wages and working conditions of the industrys largely female work force. Rejecting prevailing individualized explanations, they spell out much-needed systemic strategies to ensure that the conditions of work are the condition of care. -- Mimi Abramovitz, Hunter College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA The Labour Crisis in Long-term Care is a vital read, warning against short-term fixes and emphasizing relationship-based care as key to both staff retention and high-quality care. This perspective is essential for understanding the mechanisms behind a sustainable workforce in elder care. -- Mia Vabų, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Health care quality suffers from profound misunderstanding of its constraints and allowances. In this extraordinarily stimulating book, Pat Armstrongs group explains exactly why and how these problems arise. They explore the intertwining of conditions of care work and those of residents in long-term care, and the burden placed on those (primarily women) who provide and receive it. They also flag current tendencies that undermine best care practices. Lets hope all these governments are listening! -- Karen Messing, Université du Québec ą Montréal, Canada The contributing authors, all eminent experts on the political economy of care, provide a refreshing look at current problems in their respective countries, and offer persuasive arguments for treating the right to care and dignity in work for care providers as two sides of the equation in meeting new challenges. -- Miriam Glucksmann, Essex University, UK