"... and the word was made flesh" - the impact of discourses of embodiment in promoting safe manual handling practice in aged care

The inquiry, which is the basis of this research, was focused on the impact of discourses of embodiment in keeping aged care workers safe in manual handling situations. The thinking underpinning the research is that if the aged care workers are disembodied beings, as previous research has demonstrated (Bernoth, 2001), bringing the body into focus through educational programs may enable aged care workers to work safely. Previous research found that for aged care workers the body is a nullity to the person within that body, but it can be seen by others who inhabit their own invisible bodies. The use of mirrors was initially helpful but impractical in bringing the body into focus in the work environment. A process of mirroring was achieved through words, the words of the Other, the words of the person who can see the body of the Other. Through multiple strategies, including education programs, aged care workers were supported to develop a language that would reflect back to the other person how their body was positioned, and whether they were at risk or if their safety was compromised. The impact of the discourses of embodiment on the aged care workers was explored from a variety of sources with the richest data emerging from the stories of five of the aged care workers. Multiple theorists provided a basis on which the aged care workers’ stories could be interpreted and their stories taken into account. Foucault, Freire, Davies, Butler, and Somerville provide a framework around which the body could be brought into focus through the words of the aged care workers. Post-structural theory and postmodern emergent methodology provided a theoretical framework through which the words and the bodies emerged. But there were unexpected consequences for the bodies in focus. This new discourses of the body shattered the dominant discourses in aged care revealing paradoxes, ironies and subversion. As the language evolved, the aged care workers began speaking the conditions of aged care work. Aged care is about caring for bodies but the dominant discourses potentiate the phenomena of the absent body. Bodies brought into focus are not safe. They are exposed to other dangers. Language iii is the means of revealing the dangers and subversion and reveals the distorted image presented to statutory authorities charged with monitoring standards and auditing claims for funds. The subversion reveals a negative of the Panopticon, a mirror image where the observed are aware of the observation so can distort what is being seen so they can present the image expected by the authorities. It is a distorted image, a mirror image. Picasso’s painting, “Girl before a Mirror” is used throughout as a metaphor for the process of mirroring. It is a means of illustrating the experience of working in aged care and having the courage to look in the mirror, see the image and talk a different language from the dominant discourse, revealing an alternative image. The research challenges a whole range of discourses and discursive practices in aged care. In doing so it also raises questions about safety and what it means to the individual to be safe.