Alert assistants in managing chronic illness: The case of mothers and teenage sons

Abstract

In this paper the organising concept of the 'alert assistant' is developed to identify and explore the skilled and often invisible work which mothers of teenage boys with a chronic illness carried out on behalf of their sons. The term 'alert assistant' implies that the needs of the person being assisted are identified, or preferably anticipated and subsequently met, by the assistant. Two inter-relating factors influenced how mothers constructed the need of their sons for an alert assistant; mothers' perceptions of the self-care abilities of their sons, and the gendered ways in which boys lived with chronic illness. Dilemmas for the alert assistant, including being blamed for mollycoddling, are discussed. It is suggested that the incisive concept of the alert assistant not only has the potential to increase understandings of the gendered management and experience of illness, but that it could also be useful in other diverse settings.