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Paper Short Abstract:

Based on an analysis of Portuguese care policies and on research in paid and unpaid contexts of home care in old age in Lisbon, this presentation explores the intersections between home as a place of (desired) wellbeing at ageing, and as a workplace marked by inequalities and ambiguities.

Paper Abstract:

Is home care the best care? The home is often considered in public, institutional and political discourse to be the best place to grow old. As the place where most care is provided, it’s also a place marked by different types of unrecognized care work, with a high burden and physical, psychological, economic and labour impacts. When it’s paid, it’s characterized by a continuum of devaluation and feminization and by racial-ethnical inequalities.

Care policies in Portugal have continuously developed from a familistic perspective: formal social care is complementary, for when the family is unable to fulfil its “responsibilities”. In 2019 the informal care status was created, with different support measures for (some) non-paid family carers. Even with a big lack of accessibility and affordability, home care services are also growing, being the type of paid care for older people with more vacancies (GEP-MTSSS 2021). These changes are taking place in a context of resource restraint with a primary concern for the sustainability of social and health systems, which requires strong attention to the risks of continued privatization and (re)familiarization of home care.

Based on an analysis of Portuguese care policies and on research in paid and unpaid contexts of elderly home care in Lisbon, this presentation explores the intersections between home as a place of (desired) wellbeing at ageing, and as a workplace marked by inequalities and invisibilities, critically reflecting on the domicilisation of care, particularly in a familistic context where home care is dominantly politically and morally idealized.