Involvering af clienten i hjemmeplejen - hvem tilpasser sig hvem og hvad? Whose adaption to whom and to what?

Background: Through the last 35 years, ‘client involvement’ has been a mantra within health policies, education curriculums and health care institutions, yet very little is known about how ‘client involvement’ is practiced in the meetings with clients and health professionals.
Aim: To analyse and discuss ‘client involvement’ in action from the perspectives of healthcare professionals, elderly and their relatives in a home care setting in relation to the rules of the political, administrative system.
Method: Sociological pilot field study consisting of three weeks’ observation and interviews with one client, his cohabitant family and the involved healthcare professionals.
Results: Client involvement in home care service is shown within the constructed categories: The schism between wishing for and actually being helped; The chronological order can be negotiated; not the content; Liberal business gives the client full influence into the treatment and the therapist gold; and Converting a home to at working place and a home. Client involvement in practice seems to be very limited.
Conclusion: All in all, involvement of clients in home care service seems to be more of a political illusion than a practical reality. The hypothetic results will be challenged in the main study