Relationship between older adults and their migrant care workers

In addition to interviews with migrant caregivers, discussions and interviews were conducted with older people who were currently receiving care services in institutional and home care settings and some who were prospective care users, in order to explore perceptions and experiences of the relationship between foreign caregivers and older people. In general, elderly clients expressed positive feelings toward foreign-born caregivers and were more concerned with the quality of care than the source. Factors that were found to contribute to constraints on the care relationship between clients and caregivers included language and communication issues, as well as factors relating to broader constraints on the quality of care, notably staff shortages and lack of time available to caregivers to attend to the needs of elderly clients, including time to form strong relationships.

Related Subject(s): Migration