Paper short abstract:

The interest of this article lies in identifying the background of the responsibility's discourse and analysing the profile of home-based family caregivers, that can help us drive a more equitable and democratic social organization of care.

Paper long abstract:

During the covid-19 pandemic there was a return to family-based care provision in the home, intensifying the difficulties faced by families when organising home-based care for persons in a situation of dependency.

In this paper, we start from the basis that the spanish model is not only cultural but political and family-based, as a result of the lack of public investment in the care system for the elderly and the disabled.

We will analyse the profile of the situations of home-based family caregivers, in order to identify typologies that will aid our understanding of the construction of the sense of responsibility for care. We are also interested in delving into the meaning of this responsibility, how it is perceived by families, how it is experienced and how it is defined by caregivers. Gender, social class and kinship are essential variables for interpreting this sense of responsibility. Identifying the background of the discourse of responsibility can help us drive a more equitable and more democratic social organisation of care to overcome the inequalities of the current model.

The data on which our reflections are based stem from in-depth interviews with men and women caregivers of family members in varying states of health, within the home, in Spain. This ethnography is included in the project: “The model of long-term care in transition: the impact of Covid-19 on family-based organisation of care”.