Adapting to home care in Norway: A longitudinal case study of older Adults' experiences

This study aimed to describe how older adults with complex health problems manage their everyday lives in their own homes and how they interact with given home care. In this multiple-case study, a total of 14 individual interviews were conducted with five older adults over the course of one year. Deductive and inductive content analyses were performed. Three descriptive categories were each identified in the deductive ('home care as interpersonal continuity', 'home care as information continuity' and 'home care as management continuity') and inductive analyses ('Lack of social contact with carers', 'Desire to be heard throughout the care process' and 'Carers are short on time'). Quality home care services are difficult to realize if interpersonal interaction is subordinated to effective task-solving.

"We Tried to Take Care of Her, but it Got Too Exhausting": A Study of the Transition From Family Carer to Employer

In Taiwan an increasing number of families are employing live-in carers from abroad to cope with care responsibilities, including the Indigenous Tayal. The aim of this research was to understand the transition from Indigenous family carer to employer with older family members who have extensive care needs. Six Indigenous employers were interviewed, and a narrative hermeneutic analysis was performed. The Tayal caregivers' cases revealed that their transition to employing live-in carers was complex and filled with ethical dilemmas due to their vulnerable positions. They tried to ensure person-centered care for their family members, but by doing this they risked reproducing vulnerability when transferring their own vulnerability to the live-in carer. The results indicate the interwoven nature of care dependency when it is defined by multiple vulnerabilities, Indigeneity and migration, and the multifaceted components of cultural safety.

"All I expect is that they accept that I am a Sami" an analysis of experiences of healthcare encounters and expectations for future care services among older South Sami in Norway

The aim of this study first aims to forward our empirical knowledge of how older Sami experience healthcare encounters in Norway and what they expect in terms of future care services, and second, to forward our understanding of how more culturally safe services could be offered to the Sami population, 30 years after they were officially recognised as an Indigenous People. A qualitative interpretative and constructivist research design was used. 12 older South Sami were interviewed about their experiences with healthcare encounters, and their expectations for future care services. The results showed that the participants sometimes felt deprioritised and misunderstood by healthcare professionals. Moreover, they sometimes experienced that healthcare professionals had little or no knowledge about Sami history, culture and cosmology. They worried that they would not be accepted for being Sami if one day they would have to move into a nursing home. To conclude, the participants of this study are situated in a colonising context characterised by personal and collective experiences of accumulated discrimination that have taken place over many generations. The concepts of health equity and accumulated discrimination provide useful insights in the further development of culturally safe services for Indigenous Peoples in Norway and beyond.

'We are All Interdependent'. A Study of Relationships Between Migrant Live-In Carers and Employers in Taiwan

For the past three decades, to meet the increasing need for long-term care, the Taiwanese government’s primary approach has been to import migrant care workers. In this article, we analyse qualitative interview data produced in an Indigenous community. Drawing on Kittay’s feminist dependency theory, we explore the interrelationships and collaborative efforts between live-in carers and their employers. Three types of relationships were identified: ‘unsupportive relationships’, where the live-in carer was treated as a servant; ‘supportive relationships’, where the live-in carer was treated as a care worker; and ‘semi-supportive relationships’, where the live-in carer was treated as a carer-servant. In conclusion, the article sheds light on how the live-in carer arrangement could be practised in ways that allow live-in carers and thereby their care recipients to thrive.

Being connected to nature, reindeer, and family: findings from a photovoice study on well-being among older South Sámi people

In this paper, we examine the perceptions of well-being among older South Sámi people with various experiences from reindeer herding by use of a method called photovoice. Eleven participants, including six men and five women aged 67–84 years, agreed to take photos of situations, things, or persons that made them feel a sense of well-being. When the researcher collected the photos, the participants were invited to tell their stories related to each photo. In the thematic analysis of the photos, three main themes emerged: a) well-being through connection to nature, b) well-being through connection to the reindeer, and c) well-being through connection to the family. In conclusion, we argue that if healthcare professionals are to enhance the well-being of care receivers – in this case older people with South Sami background from reindeer-herding families – they must consider the care receiver’s life story and what constitutes well-being for the individual person.

'Contradictions in having care providers with a South Sami background who speak South Sami': older South Sami People in Sweden's expectations of home nursing care

The Sami are an indigenous population with multiple languages and dialects living in northern areas of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula. The South Sami population lives in central regions of Sweden and Norway, and consist of about 2000 people. In this study, 56 older South Sami people from Sweden participated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted over the telephone and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The main findings show that older South Sami people's expectations of having care providers with a South Sami background speaking South Sami in home nursing care contain contradictions in and between participants. Participants had different preferences regarding having care providers with a South Sami background speaking South Sami in the future. When providing care to older South Sami people, individual adjustments are of importance, and our study showed that participants had different expectations despite having similar backgrounds.

"Struggling for independence": the meaning of being an oldest old man in a rural area. Interpretation of oldest old men's narrations

The amount of older people receiving home nursing care is increasing; in rural areas, they are at additional risk because of the distance between people and health care facilities. No specific studies have been found about oldest old men living alone and receiving home nursing care and the meaning of living alone in one's own home. The aim of this study was therefore to illuminate the meaning of being an oldest old man living alone in a rural area and receiving home nursing care. A sample of 12 oldest old men living in rural areas in the middle of Norway was chosen for this study. Narrative interviews were conducted, and data were analyzed using the phenomenological hermeneutical method. After a naïve reading and a structural analysis of the text, we identified three themes: feelings of insufficiency in everyday life, finding hope in life, and feeling reconciliation with life. The comprehensive understanding suggested that being an oldest old man living alone in a rural area means a struggle between a dependent existence and a desire to be independent. Living in the tension between independence and dependency is a complex emotional situation where one is trying to accept the consequences of life and loss--reconciling the wish to live with the fact that life will come to an end.

Isolation and characterization of a double-stranded ribonucleic acid from Penicillium chrysogenum

Double-stranded ribonucleic acid has been obtained from cells of the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum. This ribonucleic acid appears to be associated with mycophage and is an efficient inducer of interferon Its. extraction and partial purification are discussed, and evidence for its double-stranded and ribosidal nature is reviewed. The implications of viral nucleic acid in the life processes of fungi are considered.