Welfare Reform on the Web (March 2001): Care of the Elderly - Overseas

FROM POORHOUSE OVERSEER TO PRODUCTION MANAGER: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF OLD AGE CARE IN SWEDEN REFLECTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OCCUPATION

G. B. Trydegård

Ageing and Society, vol. 20, 2000, p. 571-597

Article illustrates the changes in the Swedish system of old-age care during the 20^th century by analysing the history of the role of the care manager. In the first two decades of the 20^th century, managers controlled strictly disciplined poor relief institutions. The period 1920-1950 was dominated by a belief in institutional care of the elderly and the supervisors were matrons of care homes, geriatric nurses and managers of care staff. The decades 1950-1980 saw expansion of services and development of home care. In the 1990s, with a strained public economy, financial control became a central feature of the work of managers.