Telecare and older people: who cares where?

Abstract

'Telecare solutions' are seen as a potential means of addressing the future care needs of ageing societies in Western economies. The development of these remote care systems runs in parallel with policies aimed at 'ageing in place'; and is targeted at supporting the perceived care needs of frail older people within the home. Drawing on ethnographic and deliberative panel data from European Community funded research, we consider how these developments contribute to a reshaping of the place and experience of care for older people. We do so by addressing the ways in which remote care systems can, firstly, act to change the experience of home; and secondly, re-order the place of care-work and responsibilities to care as new actors become enrolled within the care network and existing care-givers take on differing roles and responsibilities. Finally, we consider how this paper contributes to conceptual debates around institution and extitution - that is, the de-territorialisation of the physical structure of the institution and its re-manifestation through new spaces and times that seek to end interior and exterior distinctions.