Grant: Operating Grant -PA: Gender, Sex and Health Res. -Work & Hlth & Sexual Hlth

How does growth in the number of private duty carers coupled with the care work performed by unpaid students, volunteers and family members in long-term residential care facilities impact the organization of care? The study is specifically interested in how occupational health and safety and the division of labour are affected by the informal care provided by people other than those employed at the facility. It is mostly women who are employed in long-term residential care. Recent health human resources research does recognize that women are the overwhelming majority of paid providers but consideration of gender in relation to paid health care work is not common, as is evident when reviewing the 2010 health systems trends report from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. While we have little information on the gendered dimensions of paid work in long term residential care, we have next to no information about the other paid and unpaid carers in facilities, nor is this informal care acknowledged in research or in policy. Addressing this gap is of vital importance because of the implications for our understanding of facility care, of the safety of the space and of the people who live and work there. We will survey all nursing homes and retirement homes in Ontario, and conduct interviews and detailed observations of units in 5 facilities in Toronto and with selected residents and their carers in each of the 5 facilities to elicit answers to several important overarching questions: 1. How has the division of labour shifted for facility employees due to the work performed by informal carers (i.e. paid private duty carers, students, volunteers and family members)? 2. In what ways are workloads and occupational health and safety in the facilities affected by the care performed by these other carers? 3. Finally, how do we understand the amount of time available for care (e.g. staff intensity) when we account for work performed by other carers?