Devoted work without limits? Activities and premises of home visit work at the margins of community care

Abstract

Community care provided through home visits is an increasingly common way to respond to adult citizens’ complex needs due to, for example, mental health and substance abuse problems. This study explores the activities and core premises that this work entails. The data contain six focus group interviews with practitioners in five service settings in Finland and Sweden at the margins of community care. Through a two-stage coding process, 11 activities and three premises – situationality, boundlessness and empathy – were identified. The findings show that home visit work at the margins of community care is comprehensive and flexible, requiring reflexivity.