21DSG29
Doctoral Thesis
Project commenced:Te Piere Warahi (Ng>āti Maniapoto), The University of Auckland
My thesis addresses the question: What is the value of care to the carers? To achieve this objective, I interviewed thirteen participants from the Whangarei area, Auckland city and Hamilton city.
I focus specifically on the care experience. Using a 'hindsight and humour' lens, I reveal the positive expressions to the human face of care and love to balance the daily 24 hours 7 days a week mechanical grind of care which is the dominant voice in literature.
Coined by a carer, 'the great paydays of caring' captures the essence of reciprocal love between the carer and their whānau. A phrase by another carer became a key theme – care means love.
My achievements are threefold: creating theory and new scholarship by applying the mathematical laws of three isosceles triangles in the formulaic design of an intersection using a qualitative framework. Secondly, creating new scholarship through innovative thinking within the intersection and respecting the two worldviews within that space (Durie 2004). Finally, by being inventive and using the carers' voices as the narrators throughout my research to determine how they would present their care experiences and their ontological realities to address the research question.
Care means love, is the future for elderly whānau.