Wash, Wear, and Care: Clothing and Laundry in Long-Term Residential Care

by Pat Armstrong, Suzanne Day

Overview

Clothing and appearance are steeped in social and personal significance, conveying individuals’ gender, class, culture, and occupation. In the communal setting of long-term residential care, where residents’ autonomy and mobility are often limited but their dignity and identity are paramount, clothes have become crucial issues and the source of tension for residents, their families, and staff. Assessing the neglected but important labour involved in ensuring that clothes promote respect for both the washers and the wearers, Wash, Wear, and Care analyzes the roles that laundry and clothing play in nursing homes, and raises questions about the wider social, political, economic, and historical contexts of these facilities. Drawing on interviews and observations from twenty-seven long-term residential care homes across Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Pat Armstrong and Suzanne Day provide an extensive and vital base of information on the daily organization, tasks, meanings, and concerns associated with clothing, laundry, dressing, and appearance in care facilities. An original study of an overlooked subject, Wash, Wear, and Care illuminates the shifting political and economic dynamics at work in long-term residential care homes and the health care system, raising larger theoretical and policy questions in the process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773549258
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	04/24/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Pat Armstrong is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Suzanne Day received a PhD in sociology from York University in 2015.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Setting the Stage 3

1 Who Pays and Who Profits 20

2 The Labour of Laundry and Clothing 42

3 Risky Business 71

4 Clothing, Laundry, and Taking Care 101

5 Contradictions, Tensions, and Possibilities 129

6 Conclusions 156

Appendix A Project Methodology 167

Appendix B Sample Site Visit Schedule 176

Appendix C Observation Guide 177

References 179

Index 201

Editorial Reviews

The authors illuminate vividly the complex work of clothing and laundry and its social and personal significance as an aspect of resident care, offering a compelling argument that care provision and care receipt are inextricably linked.” Jane Aronson, McMaster University

From the Publisher