The number of elderly and disabled Americans in need of home health care is increasing annually, even as the pool of people-almost always women-willing to do this job gets smaller and smaller. The Caring Class takes readers inside the reality of home health care by following the lives of women training and working as home health aides in the South Bronx.

Richard Schweid examines home health care in detail, focusing on the women who tend to our elderly and disabled loved ones and how we fail to value their work. They are paid minimum wage so that we might be absent, getting on with our own lives. The book calls for a rethinking of home health care and explains why changes are urgent: the current system offers neither a good way to live nor a good way to die. By improving the job of home health aide, Schweid shows, we can reduce income inequality and create a pool of qualified, competent home health care providers who would contribute to the well-being of us all.

The Caring Class also serves as a guide into the world of our home health care system. Nearly 50 million US families look after an elderly or disabled loved one. This book explains the issues and choices they face. Schweid explores the narratives, histories, and people behind home health care in the United States, examining how we might improve the lives of both those who receive care and those who provide it.

About the Author

Richard Schweid is author of a dozen books, including Invisible Nation, and Hot Peppers.

Reviews

Schweid treats his subjects and their community with generosity of heart and purpose. He places these women and their stories in the foreground, and the entire book benefits from that choice. Schweid approaches the dilemmas within the home health aide profession from numerous informative angles, but his writing remains broadly accessible. As a result, The Caring Class is easy to imagine in the hands of undergraduates, or even thoughtful high schoolers, studying all manner of subjects related to the social sciences or public health.

* Chapter 16 *

The Caring Class is an extremely readable and informative book for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike. [The author] provides an excellent understanding for necessary reforms at a national scale.

* ILR Review *

[The Caring Class] provides necessary information to understand deficiencies and challenges in the current system of home health care and a potential leverage point for building a strong workforce that is needed to have a sustainable care system where older adults who need care can continue to live in their homes with safety and dignity.

* The Gerantologist *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501754104
Author Richard Schweid
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint ILR Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g