Loneliness of the terminally ill and the effect on care professionals

What is it about?

Neoliberal ideals of autonomous living and individual choice guide the policies and organisation of care and treatment for the very old and fatally ill patients in Norway and Denmark. This article studies how care professionals experience and relate to this development in their practices, and how it influences their thinking about old age care . The scenes of care in the homes, the discussions between professionals, the narratives of professionals, and experiences of the researcher are analysed in order to identify everyday logics of care as well as what professionals sense and fantasize about in elderly home based care. The analysis discusses how the loneliness and precarious situation of the patients, creates projections of fear, aggression, and loneliness that affect the relation of professionals to citizens, and the meaning of work. The identifications and fantasies of professionals also open up for longing for community in very old age, and generate utopian visions about elderly care in the professional communities of practice.

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Why is it important?

The effect of individual living of old and terminally ill people on care givers needs to be understood as forming care practices and the meaning of care for professionals. Managing risk of lonely death, and the individual responsibility for the old people is sensed by professionals, but excluded from professional discourse and collective meaning making today.