Psychosocial health risks and health resources in the area of ​​outpatient household services

Status:

completed 06/2024

Aims:

The project aims to identify psychosocial health risks and resources of household helpers in the context of home care assistance and, on this basis, to develop prevention-oriented recommendations for action.

Activities/Methods:

The project followed an exploratory and qualitative research design that combined various methods:

1. six qualitative, guideline-based expert interviews from the fields of home economics and practice or household-related services, occupational health and safety, and trade unions;
2. two qualitative company case studies on the working conditions of domestic helpers in the context of home care assistance with a total of three group discussions with domestic helpers, three group discussions with managers, and one expert interview with a specialist in company health management. This involved a private sector and a non-profit organization;
3. a digitally conducted expert workshop in which interim results from the qualitative expert interviews and the two company case studies were presented and discussed. The participants came from the same professions as the experts interviewed, as they were mostly the same group of people. In addition, other thematically relevant experts were invited.

Results:

The project results show that the work of providing household services in the context of people in need of care involves a variety of psychosocial risks and resources, specifically with the interaction work with the people in need of care and their care network being of particular relevance as a job requirement. On the one hand, home helps’ interaction work is a source of work-related meaning, while on the other hand, interaction conflicts, experiences of verbal violence in the workplace in private households, problems balancing the relationship between personal closeness and professional distance, dealing with the death, suffering and dying of people in need of care, and perceived recognition deficits are central psychosocial stressors for home helps. It became clear that work in private households, health-oriented leadership and decent work criteria should receive greater attention in the future as part of the prevention work for this group of employees. The decent work perspective should be combined with prevention approaches, as this group of employees has an increased risk of precariousness. Based on the core results, preventive design recommendations were developed that are oriented towards both resource development and the reduction of burdens.

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