Older adults with long-term drug use have long been overlooked in both drug research and agingresearch. More knowledge is needed about their experiences and needs. Drug use is often seen asa youth phenomenon and as something that with time leads to destructiveness and compulsion. Amore nuanced picture of who uses drugs and what the use may look like over time is necessary.There is limited insight into what it means to age with drug use, based on individuals’ own storiesand experiences. We conducted 27 semistructured interviews in Sweden with individuals aged 55or older who reported current and long-term drug use. In this article, we demonstrate how the relationship with drugs evolves over time and how the interviewees contemplate stopping or continuingtheir use. Three themes were identified: (1) Aging out of drug use: Thoughts on drug cessation. Someexpressed a desire to end their drug use. The reasons behind this varied, but there was a clear patternrelated to older age. (2) Aging with drug use: Thoughts on continued use. Some had a desire to continueusing drugs and expressed concern about how everyday life would be without them. (3) Age adapteddrug use: A change in drug use. Several participants stated that their drug consumption had changedover time and with age. Drugs no longer dominated their lives as before but still served essential functions. The themes should not be seen as rigid categories, but as fluid narratives. Understanding thisvariation provides a deeper insight into people’s often complex relationship with drugs.

A growing number of older people with dementia are continuing to live in their own homes for prolonged periods, leading to a growing number of family carers. An aging population and neoliberal austerity politics are contributing to increased family-provided care instead of formal care services. This is particularly noticeable in the Nordic context, where the welfare state has traditionally been based on universalizing policies designed to mitigate inequalities. The aim of this article is to explore societal expectations of family caregivers and the rhetoric surrounding family caregiving through analyzing a Swedish handbook entitled Dementia for Family Carers: A Handbook from the Swedish Dementia Centre. The textual analysis identifies the various responsibilities expected of family caregivers and illustrates how this responsibility can best be designed. The responsibility of family carers is perceived as natural and self-evident, especially in the context of spouses or partners. In such relationships, when caring for someone with dementia, the expectation is that the carer will transition into a caregiving role rather than continuing to be a life partner. Family caregivers are also expected to be central coordinators of formal and informal care. Furthermore, the responsibility includes the carers’ own self-care and ensuring they have the necessary knowledge and support. In tandem with the refamilization process, in which more family carers are providing care for relatives, idealizing and norm-making processes of family caregiving are emerging. This responsibilization process is crafting conceptions of the good carer, one who is responsible for relatives and formal care, while also prioritizing their own well-being.

Moving into a nursing home is a signifcant transition for older people which can be emotional and stressful. Te literature on thedecision to move and subsequent residential stress focuses on the time after admission; however, there is less understanding ofolder people’s management of the process. To fully understand and possibly reduce negative consequences and health-relatedrisks, the aim of this article is to explore how older people manage the transition from home to nursing home. Te study is basedon 21 longitudinal interviews with seven older people during the process of moving. Following Dorothy Smith’s theory of work,the analysis fnds three types of work—practical, relational, and emotional—that older people engage in during the transitionprocess. Te results highlight the importance of considering the entire transition process, not only experiences before or after, ifwe are to reduce the negative, stress-related consequences of relocations of this kind. Te fndings have practical implications forprofessionals in health and social care and point to the need to develop practical, relational, and emotional support for olderpeople throughout the transition process.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of incurable visual impairment and impacts daily life. These impacts include loss of social activities, decreased functional independence, and reduced physical activity. This protocol aims to describe a prospective, mixed-methodology for studying a population with AMD before, during, and after an empowerment-based physical activity intervention (EPI). A study framework was also developed for EPI. The intervention will include 20 older individuals (age 65+ years) with AMD recruited in Sweden. The intervention period is six months and comprises adapted physical activity and social activities in a group twice a week and individual health coaching on three occasions. The quantitative pre-test and three follow-ups include physical functional tests, an accelerometer that monitors physical activity continuously for one week, and questionnaires. Individual and focus-group interviews and ethnographic observations will explore the experience of living with AMD and what it means to participate in the EPI for individuals with AMD. The chosen methodology offers a structured way for researchers to explore the experiences and factors that may provide insights into the potential of creative supervised, adapted physical activity in groups, health coaching, and socialising that are significant to enable well-being among older individuals with AMD.

Family carers have a growing significance, and they are increasingly regarded as clients in need of support. In Sweden, the municipal support for family carers is often provided by family care advisors. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding this relatively new area of social work practice. This article aims to explore how family care advisors describe their work and construct their professional role in relation to family carers. The empiric material derives from a research circle, a form of focus group interview, with family care advisors. The theoretical framework is based on the concept categorical pair, where the description of the family care advisors’ work includes constructing themselves as professionals and the family carers as clients. Four themes have emerged in their stories: being neutral, being allies, being a container, and being an educator. The findings show how the family care advisors’ relationship with the family carers is described as being simultaneously personal and professional: a form of professional friendship with a delicate balancing act. The family care advisors also view their neutral role, with no power to exercise authority, as important and required. Family carers that are perceived as difficult are described from a paternalistic perspective, thus needing to be educated by the family care advisors. Accordingly, when the family care advisors construct their professional role, they also construct family carers, which includes implicit moral notions of a ‘good carer’.

”Make room!” Concerning ableism, paternalism and the construction of dis/abilityWithin the social work profession, social vulnerability and social justice are central concerns. However, professional emphasis is on economic and social conditions and less on dis/ability, despite the fact that dis/ability is important, not only for services aimed specifically at people with dis/abilities, but the entire profession of social work is linked to dis/ability in various ways. The purpose of the article is to contribute to a deepened understanding of vulnerability in general and, in particular, the vulnerability of people with dis/abilities. An advertisement from the Swedish Public Employment Service’s campaign “Make room!” forms a point of departure for a theoretical discussion of how dis/ability is constructed. The article demonstrates how the advertisement is based on paternalistic and ableistic ways of thinking that connect dis/ability, gender, and race/ethnicity. Able-bodied perfection is regarded as desirable, while the deviant body is linked to deficiency and suffering. The article also deals with the critical discussion that followed the advertisement, which eventually led to the Swedish Public Employment Service withdrawing it. Finally, we argue in favour of a cripistemological perspective in social work. This means taking previously marginalized knowledge as a starting point and reformulate traditional perspectives. It also means seeking cross-border cooperation between social work and the disability rights move-ment as well as other social movements. Thus, the lived experience of vulnerability that can result from impairment and its effects, as well as the political vulnerability that arises due to lack of resources, are made visible, without vulnerability being interpreted from paternalistic and ableis-tic perspectives. Moreover, ideas of the normal body and the normal way of thinking and fee-ling can be made visible and criticized, and alternative visions for how to organize society can be formed. 

Medication management in elderly care has become a considerable part of the care work. It involves health care professionals, such as registerednurses, formally delegating their tasks to non-professionals, typicall ycare workers. The aim of this article is to explore the medication management in nursing homes for older people. The focus lies on howcare workers and residents interact in relation to the medication management routines. Participant observations were made in seven nursing homes, and the analysis of the empirical material applied the theoretical concepts of local routine culture and materiality. The nursing home residents may try to resist or negotiate the medication management routines, express their reluctance in words or actions, ask questions or make demands. While routines produce institutional bodies, acts of resistance and negotiation may strengthen a person’s sense of self. Medication management affect the relationship between care workers and residents, by enabling interaction. Looking at medication management as a social phenomenon deepens the understanding of how it affects care work and illustrates that in the context of nursing home care, health care and social care are not separate but rather intertwined.

Läkemedelshantering har blivit en betydande del av äldreomsorgen. Medicinskt utbildad personal såsom sjuksköterskor delegerar sina uppgifter till omsorgspersonalen som ofta saknar medicinsk kunskap. Syftet med denna artikel är att utforska hanteringen av läkemedel påsärskilda boenden för äldre personer. Fokus ligger på huromsorgspersonalen och de äldre interagerar i relation till medicinerna och rutinerna kring dessa. Deltagande observationer gjordes på sju boenden, och det empiriska materialet analyserades genom teorier om ‘local routine culture’ och materialitet. Resultaten visar hur de äldre kanförsöka göra motstånd eller förhandla om läkemedlen och dess rutiner genom till exempel uttrycka sin motvilja i ord eller handling, ställa frågor eller be om mer medicin. Medan rutiner formar en institutionellordning och ger personalen makt, kan motstånd och förhandlingar till viss del stärka de äldres självkänsla och inflytande. Medicinerna påverkar förhållandet mellan omsorgspersonal och de äldre genom att möjliggöra interaktion. Att se hanteringen av läkemedel som ett socialt fenomen fördjupar förståelsen för hur det påverkar omsorgsarbetet och illustrerar hur hälso-och sjukvård och social omsorg är nära sammanflätade inom ramen för särskilt boende.