Media imagery of home care reinforces the narrative of older adults as a burden

Home care for older adults has received considerable attention in the Finnish media in recent years. Conducted at the University of Eastern Finland, a recent study found that newspaper images of home care tend to paint a picture of efficient care workers in a hectic work environment, while portraying older clients as passive recipients of care.

“Our observations are highly consistent with previous studies on the everyday realities of home care, and this is why newspaper images can be interpreted as reflecting the current state of home care. However, these images and the perceptions they create also shape people’s behaviour and thinking, which is why it’s important to critically assess them,” University Lecturer Hanna Ristolainen notes.

The study constitutes part of the Old-age Social Exclusion in Home Care – Prevalence, Meanings & Intervention project, SOLDEX, which explored the well-being, daily lives and challenges faced by older home care clients.
 

Newspaper images paint a picture of older adults’ vulnerability and loneliness

The media plays an important role in shaping people’s perceptions of various issues and demographic groups, Associate Professor of Social Psychology Jari Martikainen says and continues:

“The perceptions created by newspaper images can influence what gets get prioritised in policy-making, for example.”

The study examined perceptions created by newspaper images of home care, and of older adults in need of care. Home care was often portrayed as an efficient service and care workers as active people with agency, while older adults were mostly depicted as passive and lonely recipients of care.

Images portraying home care as something that is based on an equal relationship, or showing clients as content and thriving in their own homes, were notably less common in the data.

The data comprised 95 images published in Finnish newspapers in 2022 and 2023. The images were analysed using visual rhetorical analysis.
 

Institutionalised and routine-oriented nature of home care is reflected in the imagery

The findings also reflect a shift in home care and its becoming increasingly institutionalised and routine-oriented, which easily loses sight of the fundamental nature of home care as individual care in a familiar environment.

Professor Elisa Tiilikainen, who led the recently concluded SOLDEX project, notes that a system-first approach has long prevailed in the political discourse around services for older adults, with resources seen as the primary concern.

“Less attention is given to the actual needs of older adults and how best to meet them. The most important thing, i.e., older people, tend to be forgotten.”

According to the researchers, the media imagery surrounding home care and the perceptions it creates can influence decision-making related to the care and services provided to older adults. Problems arise when this imagery reinforces a resource-oriented narrative and sidelines perspectives related to dignified and high-quality care.

Negative perceptions and narratives about home care clients may also affect older adults’ beliefs of how others view them. Many older home care clients have major needs for care, and portraying them as an economic and societal burden may further undermine their chances of receiving adequate assistance in their daily lives.

The SOLDEX project was funded by the Research Council of Finland.