Timing Care for People with Dementia: ADL and the Problem of Time in the Long-term Care Insurance Program in South Korea

• In Event: Well Years, Good Years, Quality Years – Calibrations and Aggregations of Daily Living: Daily Living

Abstract

In response to the aging of its population and the weakening of family’s caring function, the Korean government introduced the Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) program in 2008. The LTCI program provides monetary supports for care services to the elderly who are unable to independently carry out daily living activities at home, or in institutions. The paper asks how the old care recipient and caring labor are figured in the LTCI grading system which is largely based on the Activities of Daily Living index and the time study for caregivers. Based on the analysis of policy reports and related materials as well as interviews with family caregivers and home-visit care helper, I explore how the LTCI grading system in Korea conceptualizes “daily living” as a series of “activities” to live a normal life for the elderly, and simultaneously a series of “tasks” to be done in a standardized and optimal manner. Especially when caring labor is done in the home of the elderly with dementia, the time study-based service allowance is highly questionable. The problem of “time” allowance that emerges around the LTCI program in Korea reveals the nature of caring labor as it is performed in situ in a specific location while dealing with specific “problems” and daily fluctuations of each client, as well as the problematic assumption about “daily living” and the declining elderly who is being “assisted” by the care workers.

Author

• Jieun Lee, University of Copenhagen