Workload, capacity for coping and psychological and physical outcomes amongst home helps in the Netherlands

Owing to many developments and changes in home care in the Netherlands, a n ational study was carried out. One of the aims was to examine the differenc es between the six categories of home help in the Netherlands regarding wor kload, pressure of work and capacity for coping. A total of 474 home helps from six categories participated in the study. A structured questionnaire, based on the components of the research model, was used, which consisted of existing scales regarding workload (organizational and job characteristics , working conditions), psychological and physical outcomes (job satisfactio n, burnout, health) and capacity for coping (social support, leadership sty le, coping strategies). Workload, specifically organizational and job chara cteristics are scored low by alpha helps and, to a lesser degree, by A home helps. The higher categories of home help experienced relatively bad worki ng conditions. Home helps, except for alpha helps, are, on the whole, quite satisfied with their work, which is one of the psychological and physical outcomes. The higher categories of home help (C, D and E carers) experience d high feelings of emotional exhaustion. Health, absenteeism and back probl ems did not differ significantly amongst home helps. When looking at capaci ty for coping, traditional home helps (A to E) received more social support . The subordinate categories of home help dealt less actively with their pr oblems and sought less social support than the other categories. Alpha help s are not employed by the organization and this might cause low organizatio nal and job characteristics, and little social support. Their satisfaction scores suggest that they would like to see their low organizational involve ment changed. The higher categories of home help, who carry out many psycho social tasks, have higher emotional and mental workload and high burnout sc ores. B, C and D carers, who perform personal care and have to adhere to st rict planning, experience extreme time pressure and a high physical workloa d.