Transformations of Care: Living the Consequences of Changing Public Policies in Australia

This report presents the main findings from an ADHC funded research project focussing on NSW care workers. Initially a context for research is provided, with an overview of the findings of international research, followed by a section on the funding of aged care services in Australia. Australian research on the community services industry concludes this review. From this overview it was found that very few studies look indepth at the details surrounding the everyday life of care from the perspective of the care workers themselves. This study addresses this gap and shows the dimensions of the working lives of care workers and the challenges faced by care workers in NSW. Presented next are the findings from a 2010 survey of NSW care workers (n=515). This study found that most care workers were female, older and experienced workers. These care workers state that they enjoy their work, however, consistently report that they have too many tasks to attend to and not enough time to complete these tasks. These findings from the NSW survey are then compared with the findings from a survey of Swedish care workers (n=212) conducted in 2005. Surprisingly, the comparison revealed that while the NSW care workers were experiencing difficulties with a lack of time to complete allocated tasks, they actually spend more time with their clients than the Swedish care workers. In addition they report that they are able to exercise more control over their working day and the nature of the care they are delivering when compared with their Swedish counterparts. Also reported are the findings from the observation studies that were carried out as part of this project. This is followed by a discussion of some of the promising practices that are being implemented by care providers, care managers and care workers in NSW.