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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Language practices in caregiving in a South African nursing home
— conflict and tension | | Author(s) | S B Makoni |
| Journal title | Southern African Journal of Gerontology, vol 7, no 2, October 1998 |
| Pages | pp 16-22 |
| Keywords | Communication skills ; Care home staff ; Nursing homes ; Anthropological studies ; South Africa. |
| Annotation | Gerolinguistics - studies of language and ageing - can give insights into the nature of ageing and the institutional contexts in which individuals grow old. Here, the author argues that language practices are embedded in care, and that an analysis of caregivers' language practices can give insight into the quality of care that is rendered. Based on findings of an ongoing ethnographic study, the effects of a number of different interactional styles in caregiving practices are identified and described. Some caregiving strategies are found to be conflictual, with some verbal strategies de-individualising and infantilising the recipients of care. The strategies induce a sense of dependence in the recipients, reinforced by the ideological position of the institution, projecting inactivity and a lack of individual autonomy as the norm. The author concludes by outlining how sociolinguistic interventions may be implemented in care institutions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990206208 A |
| Classmark | UO: QRM: LHB: 3FA: 7PM |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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