Rethinking long-term care labour force strategies

Across Canada, the long-term care labour force is in trouble. On December 11, 2024, Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong and Marta Szebehely discussed long-term care labour force strategies in Canada, Norway and Sweden with host Anne Lagacé Dowson of the Canadian Health Coalition.
The panelists encouraged a rethinking of approaches to the long-term care labour force, starting with the lives of those who do the work.
The webinar marked the launch of the new book, The Labour Crisis in Long-term Care: The Right to Care, edited by Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong Strong and Jacqueline A. Choiniere. The book can be read for free online here: www.e-elgar.co...
Incorporating in-depth historical and empirical research, this book examines the widely acknowledged crisis in the long-term care labour force. A diverse array of experts compare labour force strategies in Canada, Norway and Sweden and invite readers to rethink approaches to the long term care labour force, starting with the lives of those who do the work.
The webinar featured -
Pat Armstrong is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at York University, Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has been studying long-term care for a quarter century and during that time has lead multiple research projects, including a ten year international, interdisciplinary study of promising practices for treating those who need and those who provide care with dignity and respect. Conducted in teams, the research has been carried out in partnership with unions, community organizations and government policy makers, with a particular interest in gender and the conditions of work. She is a long-time member of the Canadian Health Coalition’s Board.
Hugh Armstrong is a Distinguished Research Professor and Professor Emeritus of Social Work and Political Economy at Carleton University in Ottawa, His major research interests include long-term care, the political economy of health care, unions and public policy, the organization of work and family and household structures. Like Pat Armstrong and with her, he has been studying long-term care for over twenty-five years. He serves as a member of Ontario Health Coalition’s Board.
Marta Szebehely is a Professor Emeritus of Social Work with the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden. For over four decades, she has partnered and lead several Nordic and international comparative research projects on eldercare. She has analysed how policy and organisational changes in eldercare have affected the everyday life of care workers, older people with care needs and their family members. Her research interests include gender, social policy and care; shifting boundaries of care (family, state, market); comparative and historical perspectives on care policies; everyday life perspectives on formal and informal care; living conditions and use of care among older and disabled people; working conditions in care work.