Farm-based day care on the market: The case of dementia care services in Norway

• Published in: Journal of rural studies 2021-02, Vol.82, p.130-137
• Main Authors: Farstad, Maja, Logstein, Brit, Haugen, Marit S., O'Connor, Deirdre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult day care; Agriculture; Care farming; Day care; Dementia; Dementia care service; Dementia disorders; Farmers; Farming; Farms; Health services; Market relation; Markets; Norway; Power structure; Provider; Well being
• ISSN: 0743-0167; 1873-1392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.01.022

In line with the multifunctional agriculture discourse, care farming is highlighted by governments as a promising service—as an additional source of income for farmers and as a current alternative or supplement to ordinary public care services. Based on the rather modest number of care farming services and their often unstable existence, this paper examines critical aspects of the market relation between providers and buyers when it comes to ensuring sustainable and persistent farm-based day care services. Our analysis is based on interviews with farmers as providers of farm-based day care services for people with dementia living in their own homes and with representatives from the municipal health sector as buyers of these services. One of the findings is that the askew, yet harmony-characterised, power structure between the market actors makes professional ordering of care farming services critical to the providers’ endurance and wellbeing. The paper concludes that the market relation between providers and buyers could be strengthened, but vulnerabilities related to such a relationship are inevitable. •In the market exchange of farm-based day care services, the municipality has relatively strong power compared to the farmer.•This asymmetrical power balance may hinder claims for economically and socially sustainable services.•A professional and predictable collaboration is important for farmers' perseverance as providers of care farming services.