Communication failure in home-help service

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results from an ongoing research project with the purpose to explore possible ways of using and benefiting from mobile technology for home-help service.It is based upon a field study of three Swedish home-help service units. The project aims at an understanding of the work practices of the home-help service. The paper shows that the informal communication is an important practice in the work, but not always sufficient. This is exemplified by an episode with a caretaker. The incident implies that the practice of informal communication possibly could benefit from mobile technology.