A Modest Research Proposal - 2023 08 23

 

The purpose of this research is to provide a preliminary test case for collecting evidence based data to quantify the work being carried out in family caregiving homes.

At present there is no data providing a thorough cost accounting of family caregiving infrastructure. There is no commensurate comparison of cost accounting comparing family caregiving infrastructure to institutional caregiving infrastructure. There is no evidence-based reconciliation of resource flows to institutional caregiving infrastructure in relation to family caregiving infrastructure.

This modest proposal would start with a pilot study of a self-selected family caregiver to conduct an autoethography time/material cost study of work performed to provide family caregiving infrastructure. 

The locus of the study would be the family caregiving bed. The autoethnography would study all work entailed in providing this caregiving bed. The term 'work' includes the time of caregiving, the labour that is provided to service the health and well being of the occupant of the bed. The term 'work' also includes the material cost of providing the property, housing, furnishings, utilities, insurance, telecommunications, transportation, and consumables that provide shelter, warmth, sustenance, and hygiene for the occupant of the bed.

The study period would cover one month of family caregiving twenty-four hours a day. 

The first study would be done on one family caregiving household to fine tune data collection methods. 

The second iteration of the study could be scaled to select one family caregiving household in each health authority in the province of BC. 

The third iteration of the study could then be scaled to select one family caregiving household in each support unit across Canada.

The fourth iteration of the study could focus on a particular caregiving demographic - for example, young caregivers aged 18 to 30.

The fifth iteration of the study could focus on family caregivers who are also working full time.

There are many iterations that could follow, to continue to provide evidence based data to understand the full cost of family caregiving and how that full costing relates to the cost of institutional caregiving, and then, finally, how resources are assigned to support both caregiving infrastructures.

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