Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

abyss that caregivers are confronted with emotionally and empathetically daily.
Therefore, attention must be paid to how caregivers make sense of their world and the
life-course, because it is through their practices, both normatively and institutionally,
that caregivers and their actions structure and shape the discourse of ageing. Caregivers
do not just interface with the elderly by bringing them the outside world; they stand in
for the world.
The relationship that obtains between caregiver and care-receiver is not fixed; nor is it a
simple relation of static dependency or attachment. Rather it is on-going symbolic
interaction or, more subtly, an historically constituted intersubjective relationship
which generates analytically interesting transformations of existing relationships and
people's sense of themselves vis-à-vis others and their feelings about ageing and death.
Even though caregiving appears to be just manual labour, the relationships that are
forged and the nature of the intimacy involved in caregiving rub off on workers in
interesting ways. I witnessed how caregivers try to maintain empathic distance at times
with their residents.
An anthropology of caregivers can seek to address what actually constitutes care in
various cultural settings and societies. Is ‘care’ a set of (performative, monetary, et al.)
functions which simply arises out of reciprocation and/or a moral ethic that forces us to
look after the elderly, and in the ways that we do? In the future, will every ageing
person be assigned a caregiver; what will happen to caregivers as they become older?
What will be their expectations for the care and experiences they will have in old age?
These are just a few of the questions regarding caregiving and caregivers that I seek to
frame and advance for future debate.
ii)
What is a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC)?
CCRCs are often marketed as an alternative to the nursing home. For CCRC supporters
and sponsors, they are positioned in contradistinction to the ‘total institutions’ of the
traditional skilled nursing facility (SNF). SNFs provide residential care for people who
require constant nursing services including significant assistance with the activities of
daily living. In addition to helping people to get out of bed, go to the toilet, shower and
dress, nursing aids and their assistants also monitor and administer medication. There
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