Stockholms universitet

Petra UlmanenUniversitetslektor

Om mig

Petra Ulmanen är fil. dr i socialt arbete och universitetslektor på Institutionen för socialt arbete, Stockholms universitet. Hon undervisar på socionomutbildningen och på kurser i socialt arbete på avancerad nivå som är sökbara även utanför socionomutbildningen. Hennes forskning gäller omsorg, kön och välfärdsstat, främst äldreomsorg och anhörigomsorg för äldre personer. Hon har fokuserat på medelålders döttrars och söners hjälp till sina föräldrar, och hur detta påverkar omsorgsgivarnas liv, framförallt deras arbetsliv.

Hennes pågående forskning gäller anhörigas upplevelser av och kontakter med äldreomsorgen och sjukvården, samt hur avslag på ansökan om plats på äldreboende påverkar äldre personer och deras anhöriga. Hon intresserar sig särskilt för det som hon benämnt anhörigas organisatoriska omsorg, det vill säga den hjälp som anhöriga ger en närstående i att föra fram sina behov och bevaka sina intressen i kontakter med vård och omsorg.

Petra har tidigare varit verksam som utredare, journalist och kulturtidskriftsredaktör. Hon var med och startade den feministiska tidskriften Bang i början av 1990-talet. Hon har arbetat som utredare, bland annat på Socialstyrelsen, och som utredningssekreterare i Jämställdhetspolitiska utredningen.

Forskningsprojekt

Publikationer

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

  • Accessing nursing home care: family members’ unpaid care work in Ontario and Sweden

    2023. Petra Ulmanen, Ruth Lowndes, Jacqueline Choiniere. Unpaid Work in Nursing Homes, 18-32

    Kapitel

    In this chapter, we show how state policies and the structural features of formal care systems in Sweden and Ontario, Canada, shape family members’ unpaid care work for relatives in the lead-up to admission to a nursing home. This unpaid work includes the navigation and advocacy work required to seek, apply for and enter nursing home care. We also show how the entry of their relatives to nursing home care changes family members’ unpaid care work in these two jurisdictions.

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  • Contextual conditions and social mechanisms in rural communities and care homes

    2023. Oddrunn Sortland, Petra Ulmanen, James Struthers. Unpaid Work in Nursing Homes, 100-112

    Kapitel

    In this chapter we explore contextual and social mechanisms in rural areas in Sweden, Norway and Ontario, Canada, and how they create and shape interactions between older people in care homes, their families, the staff and the volunteers. Geographical and physical conditions frame the outer context and impact service provision and how people relate to each other.

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  • Family members and nursing home care: lessons from Ontario and Sweden during Covid-19

    2023. Ruth Lowndes, Jacqueline Choiniere, Petra Ulmanen. Care Homes in a Turbulent Era, 99-116

    Kapitel

    In this comparative chapter, family members’ engagement in nursing home care in Ontario, Canada and Stockholm, Sweden are explored during Covid-19. The pandemic severely impacted residents, and accentuated pre-existing structural issues. In Ontario, families, who often fill in care gaps, were suddenly banned from nursing homes. Severe staffing shortages created gaps in care and communication issues, leaving families extremely worried about their relatives’ health and safety: family members collectively advocated for resident information, policy clarification and re-entry. In Sweden, although families were also denied access, higher staffing levels and a system of key contact persons meant more trust in care quality and better communication between homes and families. Moving forward, in both jurisdictions, families must be involved in resident care policies. In Ontario, improved staffing levels would allow for relational engagement with residents and families, and enable families to be involved in meaningful ways rather than filling in care gaps. 

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  • Covid-19 på äldreboenden– personalens erfarenheter

    2023. Sara Erlandsson, Petra Ulmanen, Sara Wittzell.

    Rapport

    Den här rapporten belyser personalens erfarenheter av att hantera covid-19-pandemin på fyra äldreboenden i Stockholm. Rapporten skildrar personalens vittnesmål om hur två år av pandemi har påverkat deras arbetssituation och de äldres omsorg. Studien bygger på intervjuer med omsorgspersonal, sjuksköterskor och enhetschefer. Vi undersöker vilka förutsättningarna var för att hantera pandemin, vilka åtgärder som vidtogs under pandemin för att hindra smittspridning samt vilka konsekvenser pandemin fick för personalen och för de boendes vård och omsorg.

    Rapportens resultat

    • Brister i information, hygienrutiner och kompetens försvårade hanteringen av pandemin. Även den generellt sett låga grundbemanningen och otrygga anställningsformer gav dåliga förutsättningar att hantera pandemin.
    • Äldreboendena vidtog åtgärder i form av informations- och utbildningsinsatser, isolering av sjuka och smittade äldre, social distansering och ökad bemanning.
    • Personalen berättar att bristande språkkunskaper och utbildningsbakgrund hos nyanställda försvårade arbetet under pandemin. De vittnar också om varierande kompetens hos utbildade undersköterskor och problem med att flera undersköterskeutbildningar inte håller tillräckligt hög kvalitet.
    • Medicinska risker uppstod i början av pandemin genom begränsningar i möjligheten till sjukhusvård och att äldreboendenas läkare endast var tillgängliga på telefon.
    • Att ny och outbildad personal utförde personnära vård och omsorg på egen hand innebar att insatsernas kvalitet äventyrades. Kvaliteten i vård och omsorg påverkades också av att omsorgens sociala aspekter fick stå tillbaka till förmån för ett starkt fokus på hygien och social distansering.
    • De åtgärder som vidtogs under pandemin minskade självbestämmandet hos de boende. Det långa besöksförbudet medförde att de under lång tid inte fick träffa sina anhöriga. Åtgärder kring aktiviteter, isolering och samvaro i övrigt tycks ha utförts utan samråd med de boende. Personalen ställdes inför svåra avvägningar mellan den enskildes vilja och ansvaret att skydda andra boende mot smittspridning.
    • Åtgärder för att minska smittspridning innebar att arbetsbelastningen ökade, att nya arbetsmoment tillkom och att personalen arbetade mer än vanligt. Personalen fick även ta ett större medicinskt ansvar.Pandemin medförde en ökad emotionell belastning för personalen. De kände oro och rädsla för att bli smittade och att smitta andra. Åtgärder för att minska smittspridning innebar dels att de boende blev mer passiva, nedstämda och oroliga, dels att personalen förhindrades att ge den tröst och sociala stimulans som kunnat motverka dessa konsekvenser. Personalen mötte i ökad utsträckning svår sjukdom och död bland personer som de haft en relation till. De vittnar om känslor av sorg och maktlöshet.

    Rapportens slutsatser och rekommendationer

    • Chefer och sjuksköterskor har under pandemin fått ta ett alltför stort ansvar för att samordna och sammanställa information från olika myndigheter till omsorgspersonalen. Det behövs åtgärder för ett samordnat och målgruppsanpassat informationsflöde.
    • Socialtjänstlagen betonar den enskildes rätt till självbestämmande, inflytande och integritet. Att de boendes självbestämmande kraftigt begränsades under pandemin visar på vikten av att arbeta systematiskt med dessa frågor.
    • Omsorgspersonalen behöver kontinuerlig vägledning om hur hygienrutiner upprätthålls och hur självbestämmande kan bevaras i den kollektiva miljö som äldreboendet utgör. Omsorgspersonal som är med om ovanligt svåra situationer i arbetet behöver också krisstöd.
    • Bemanningen utgör en sårbarhet. Det behövs fler anställda, tryggare anställningsformer och högre kompetens för omsorgspersonal. De bör i huvudsak vara undersköterskor.
    • Det behövs mer medicinsk kompetens på äldreboenden. Det krävs fler sjuksköterskor och bemanning av sjuksköterskor dygnets alla timmar.
    • De sociala aspekterna av omsorgen har visat sig vara lika betydelsefulla som de medicinska. Omsorgspersonalen behöver ha både social kompetens och goda språkkunskaper för att kunna möta de äldres sociala behov och värna om deras livskvalitet.
    Läs mer om Covid-19 på äldreboenden– personalens erfarenheter
  • Reversed socioeconomic pattern in the costs of caring regarding well‐being and paid work among women in Sweden

    2021. Petra Ulmanen. Social Policy & Administration

    Artikel

    This study analyses the role of gender and educational attainment in the extent and perceived consequences of family caregiving in middle age in Sweden, using data on persons aged 45–66 years from a nationally representative postal survey (n = 3630) conducted in 2013. The results confirm previous research regarding the role of gender and contradict it regarding the role of class. Among female caregivers, higher education is associated with lower well-being, work performance and labour force participation relative to lower educated caregivers. When controlling for care intensity and other characteristics, these associations mostly remained. No significant associations were found among men. The results are discussed in the light of deteriorating working conditions in welfare service occupations in which many higher educated women work, and how service decline and increased fragmentation of eldercare increase the need for managerial caregiving (i.e., coordinating and handling contacts with authorities and care providers). For Swedish women, managerial caregiving increases risks of negative impacts on well-being and work performance to the same extent as providing personal care. More research is needed to understand these surprising results. Tentative conclusions are that higher educated women experience more strain from combining paid work with family care, as their caregiving is more demanding and they more frequently work full-time in high strain jobs. As they also have higher incomes, they both need and can afford to decrease their work hours to a greater extent.

    Läs mer om Reversed socioeconomic pattern in the costs of caring regarding well‐being and paid work among women in Sweden
  • Childcare and eldercare policies in Sweden

    2016. Petra Ulmanen. The sandwich generation, 242-261

    Kapitel

    Having both children and aged parents with care needs while being in paid work is probably more frequent, but less problematic, in Sweden compared to most other welfare states. Although the average Swedish woman has almost two children during her lifetime and it is very common in mid-life to care for aged parents, women remain in paid work due to highly accessible publicly financed child- and eldercare services.

    The main focus in Scandinavian child- and eldercare policy is to make the individual’s welfare less dependent upon their possibilities to purchase care services at the market and to receive care from the family; ambitions described by the two concepts universalism and de-familization. This chapter examines the meaning of economic and social de-familization (economic and social autonomy) in two types of care relationships – parental childcare and filial care – as well as from two perspectives: the perspective of the person in need of care and the potential or actual caregiver.

    Care services, as well as payments for care and care leave, have increased for childcare and decreased for eldercare in Sweden during the last three decades. While the development of childcare services stands out as a success story resulting in nearly universal access, Sweden has transformed its formerly universalistic eldercare system into a more selective and familialistic one. The decline in eldercare services is contrary to law, national policy and the care preferences of older persons. Their right to autonomy and self-determination has been drastically curtailed.

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  • From the state to the family or to the market?

    2015. Petra Ulmanen, Marta Szebehely. International Journal of Social Welfare 24 (1), 81-92

    Artikel

    This article analyses the changing roles of the state, family and market in providing care for older people in Sweden, in relation to Scandinavian welfare ideals of universalism and de-familisation. Since 2000 every fourth residential care bed has disappeared and the increase in homecare services has not compensated for the decline. Instead family care (defined here as help from adult children and other non-cohabiting family or friends) has increased in all social groups: help by daughters mainly among older people with shorter education and help by sons among those highly educated. Use of privately purchased services has also increased but continues to play a marginal role. Family care remains more common among older people with less education whereas privately purchased services are more common among those with higher education. This dualisation of care challenges universalism, and working-class daughters continue to be most affected by eldercare cutbacks.

    Läs mer om From the state to the family or to the market?
  • Kvinnors och mäns hjälp till sina gamla föräldrar

    2015. Petra Ulmanen. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift 22 (2), 111-132

    Artikel

    Women’s and men’s filial care: extent, content and consequences

    This paper analyses the extent, content and consequences of caregiving for elderly parents from agender and welfare state perspective using a nationally representative postal survey conducted in Sweden in 2013 (response rate 60.5 per cent, 3630 individuals, age 45–66 years). Negative consequencesof filial care on well-being, work situation and employment were examined. The analysisconfirms earlier research showing that filial care is common in Sweden but is less intense and hasfewer negative consequences than in less generous welfare states. A quarter of both women andmen gave filial care at least once a month, on average around 3.4 hours a week.Although men and women gave the same extent of filial care, it was more common amongwomen to give the more demanding personal care as well as to experience mental and physicalstrain, difficulties in finding time for leisure activities and reduced ability to focus on their job. Although women retired earlier than planned due to filial care more often than men, this was very rare. Men and women, however, suffered to the same extent from difficulties in managing to accomplish their tasks, to take part in meetings, courses and travels, as well as having to reducetheir working hours and quit their jobs. The content of care was crucial for the occurrence of negative consequences of caregiving, evenwhen the analysis controlled for hours of care given. The more demanding the care tasks performed,the more common it was among both men and women that their well-being and worksituation were affected. The correlation between care tasks and negative impact, however, differedbetween genders. The impact of managerial care was much higher for women than for men,which is discussed in relation to the decline of eldercare services and the lack of coordination of health and eldercare services.

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  • Omsorgens pris i åtstramningstid

    2015. Petra Ulmanen (et al.).

    Avhandling (Dok)

    This thesis examines the extent of family care for older people, primarily filial care, and the costs of caring in the Swedish welfare state. Costs of caring are understood as the negative effects of caregiving, primarily on the caregivers’ working life. The analysis is inspired by feminist theories on the importance of welfare state provisions for care for women’s citizenship, including personal autonomy and economic independence.

    The main aims of this thesis are twofold. The first is to explore the extent and development of family care for older persons in Sweden, primarily filial care, and the consequences of caregiving for well-being and working life. The second is to explore how older persons’ family members have been represented and the possible consequences of these representations for the development of publicly financed eldercare services and other forms of support for family carers, as well as for family members’ living conditions.

    The thesis consists of four studies. The first reviews the literature concerning the extent and consequences of family caregiving for older persons and the welfare state’s policy responses to older people’s care needs. The second study analyses how older persons’ family members and their role in eldercare have been represented in Swedish eldercare policy since the 1950s. The third study analyses surveys to explore changes during the 2000s in the role of the family, the public sector and the market in providing care for older persons in Sweden. The fourth study is a survey analysis of the extent, content and consequences of filial care among middle-aged women and men in Sweden in 2013.

    The policy analysis found that the expansion of eldercare was motivated solely in relation to older persons’ needs; thus working daughters’ needs of eldercare have been a blind spot in Swedish eldercare policy.

    Since 2000, every fourth residential care bed has disappeared and the increase in homecare services did not fully compensate for the decline, resulting in a significant increase in filial care in all social groups, and among both sons and daughters. Daughters of older persons with shorter education, however, remained the primary providers of filial care.

    Both daughters and sons are affected by caregiving. They suffer to the same extent from difficulties in managing to accomplish their work tasks and taking part in meetings, courses and travels. They are also equally likely to reduce their working hours and to quit their job. It is however clearly more common that daughters experience mental and physical strain, difficulties in finding time for leisure and reduced ability to focus on their job. Although more daughters than sons retire earlier than planned due to filial care, this is very rare.

    Managerial care (handling contacts with health and eldercare services) has a more salient role in a welfare state such as Sweden, with generously provided care services, less intense filial care and high employment rates among both sexes. The high labour force participation however makes middle aged children more vulnerable when their parents’ care arrangement does not work. The decline in eldercare services since 1980 has reinforced co-ordination problems in health and eldercare services. The managerial care required to handle this development, while living up to the demands of work and family life, stands out as especially demanding for the well-being and working lives of daughters.

    Läs mer om Omsorgens pris i åtstramningstid
  • Working Daughters

    2013. Petra Ulmanen. Social Politics 20 (1), 65-87

    Artikel

    Care services help women who are mothers or daughters to combine caregiving and gainful employment. While Swedish childcare policy expanded services to meet the needs of children and working mothers, this discourse analysis of Swedish eldercare policy shows that the expansion of eldercare services from the 1950s to the end of 1970s was justified solely on the basis of older people's needs. The lack of connection in policy documents between the needs of working daughters and the provision of eldercare services made it easier to cut services beginning in the 1980s, without considering the consequences for family members.

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  • Åtstramningens pris

    2012. Marta Szebehely, Petra Ulmanen.

    Rapport

    Rapporten undersöker hur den svenska äldreomsorgen har förändrats över tid. Hur har förändringarna påverkat de äldre, och hur har de påverkat deras anhörigas förvärvsarbete? Vi bygger på nya analyser av SCB:s stora intervjustudier av befolkningens levnadsförhållanden (ULF), samt tidigare svensk och internationell forskning. Vi jämför förändringarna under 1980- och 1990-talen med förändringarna under 2000-talet.

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  • Jämställdhetens blinda fläck

    2009. Petra Ulmanen. Äldreomsorg (3)

    Artikel

    Äldreomsorgen och barnomsorgen har samma funktion: att göra det möjligt för framförallt kvinnor att försörja sig genom eget förvärvsarbete. Men tillgången och kvaliteten på omsorgstjänsterna behöver förbättras och rätten att "vaffa" borde införas.

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  • Äldres döttrar

    2008. Petra Ulmanen.

    Övrigt

    Sedan slutet av 1990-talet har det runt om i landet blivit allt vanligare med olika former av anhörigstöd. Målgruppen för kommunernas stödär framförallt äldre personer som vårdar sin make eller maka. I denna artikel beskriver Petra Ulmanen hur situationen kan te sig för de äldres döttrar i rollen som anhöriga. Hon diskuterar också – utifrån ett jämställdhetsperspektiv– hur denna grupp anhöriga skulle kunna stödjas. Petra Ulmanen har varit sekreterare i utredningen Makt att forma samhälletoch sitt eget liv – jämställdhetspolitiken mot nya mål, och är nu verksam som doktorand vid Socialhögskolan i Stockholm.

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