title: Paid companions: a private care option for older adults.
abstract: Paid companions, operating either independently or through private home care agencies, perform a variety of services for financially secure older adults who can afford to pay for private support in their homes and in care facilities. Drawing on semi-structured, open-ended, in-person interviews and autodriven photo elicitation (whereby individuals take their own photos and discuss them later in the interviews) with 30 participants (15 companions, 8 clients, and 7 key informants), this study examined the work performed by paid companions. The findings revealed that, in many ways, the companion-provided services for clients living in their own homes resemble task-based home care work, but the work's emphasis is different. The social and emotional relationship with clients is the central focus of their work. Facility-based companions provide a unique role filling the care gap left by government cutbacks to staffing ratios which keeps elderly residents, often with dementia, involved and engaged in the world.
authors: Centre on Aging, University of Victoria, BC. loutcalt@uvic.ca
authors: Linda
authors: L
authors: Outcalt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D002170:Canada; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000191:economics / Q000451:nursing*; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009744:Nursing, Private Duty / Q000191:economics*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires