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

Pastures received this. For now, it is important to note that caregiving is a contentious
topic. To cite Foner again, “In the nursing home, where people, not machines, are
involved, informing on co-workers usually means telling about the way they treat
patients” (Foner 1995, 134). The defensive posturing in which caregivers on the third
floor took on vis-à-vis each other reinforced the overall atmosphere of control, and
ultimately ownership over the residents, and the system of care that was enforced upon
them. Care was more than just feeding and clothing the residents, but about taking them
out into the living and dining rooms in a presentable manner. Out in the open,
caregivers kept an eye on their residents, marking out particular territories, bodies, and
work, which demarcated the field of care within a social network of power and
dependency. When things did not go smoothly for the caregivers, as in the case of Anita,
they could blame a variety of external reasons, including the GP’s decision to change a
resident’s medication, or even the occurrence of a full moon. 21
The caregivers kept an eye on the residents by taking them out of their rooms in the
morning, and corralling them throughout the day. The residents were placed under
collective watch in the dining and living rooms. A kind of paternalism took hold in
Memory Care. Caregivers often forced meals and showers upon their residents; the
issue of nutrition and bathing took on a dimension of urgency. Caregivers thought that
the residents could do harm to themselves, and so watchfulness and constant
engagement with the residents, i.e. keeping them occupied in their stationary seats with
music and television, and taking them to the toilet every hour and a half, were deemed
necessary aspects of care.
The residents in Memory Care are more than just their bodies; they extend ontologically
beyond the confines of their rooms. They did not formulate the difference between good
and bad care, nor did they express any explicit definition or conceptualisation of care.
Rather, residents resisted certain care regimes. Many of the residents were confused
when they woke up. They wondered why they were up on the third floor: “Who is the
stranger (caregiver) hunching over my bed?” This is not a moot point, but rather speaks
to the violent change that some of the residents who suffer from dementia feel
21 Every other month, the caregivers complained that the residents were acting up and
becoming unmanageable. Many of them said, “They are all crazy. It’s that time of the
year. Whenever there’s a full moon the residents go mad.”
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