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Constraints on Social Activities of Care‐Givers: A Sociological Perspective
Author(s) -
Cant Rosemary
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1630.1993.tb01792.x
Subject(s) - neighbourhood (mathematics) , perspective (graphical) , scope (computer science) , space (punctuation) , personal care , personal space , sociology , public relations , psychology , nursing , social psychology , medicine , political science , family medicine , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
Newer policies of community care for those with disabilities have resulted in the home becoming the usual site of care. Policy makers must now give attention to the needs of those at home giving this care. This article explores the constraints on sociability opportunities of 73 mothers who were caring for children with disabilities. These opportunities are often built into leisure pursuits for women without caring responsibilities. However, choice of out‐of‐house leisure activity was circumscribed for the mothers in this study and their reported leisure activities revolved around home and neighbourhood. Even these sites offered limited scope for sociability because of the way in which caring affected domestic space and because of the characteristics of the modern Australian suburb. It is argued in this paper that personal time and personal domestic space are needed by care‐givers so their sociability needs can be fulfilled. An understanding of the constraints imposed by use of the home as a place of care may make possible the planning of a rearrangement of domestic space to increase sociability opportunities for carers.