PROFESSIONAL CARING - HOMECARE WORKERS AS FICTIVE KIN

In this article, the collaboration of both the care recipient and the caregivers to negotiate the social expectations of the appropriateness of family with the economic and situational realities of formal assis tance are explored. The data for this project are drawn from intensive interviews (N=39) that were conducted as part of a larger evaluation study of a midwestern state's SRS Income Eligible and Home and Communi ty Based Services (HCBS) programs, The introduction of professional st rangers (homecare workers), into a sphere of intimacy is sometimes acc omplished by constructing a familial relationship with the client. Thu s the familial-type tasks provided by the stranger-caretaker can be re constructed as appropriate and the realm of privacy and intimacy can b e maintained. By ''adopting'' their homecare workers as fictive kin, t he elder is able to maintain a sense of the cultural ideal of family c aregiving. This also enables the elder to place kin expectation levels on the homecare worker; which can go well beyond the ''assigned'' dut ies of a respite employee. Additionally, the fictive kin relationship appears to provide the homecare worker with a positive feeling and a s ense of meaning in her work.