THE COMPLEXITY OF EVERYDAY ETHICS IN-HOME HEALTH-CARE - AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL-WORKERS DECISIONS REGARDING FRAIL ELDERS AUTONOMY

Little attention has been given to the ethical dimensions of social wo rk practice in the growing field of home health care. This descriptive , exploratory study examined the influence of frail elders' cognitive status, safety, and caregiver burden on social workers' support for au tonomy. The major findings of this study were that all three factors w ere significantly related to support for autonomy. Especially importan t was the emergence of a ranking of the relative importance of these t hree factors in social workers' decision making: the first factor cons idered was cognitive status, the second was safety, and the third was caregiver burden.