How the care managers handle the situation when older people consider relocation to a residential home

The aim of this article is to reveal how care managers handle the process when older people consider relocation to a residential home in a Swedish context. The article is based on vignette-based interviews with seven care managers. The main findings in the article are that the care managers assist older people in their decisions by turning ageing in place and relocation respectively into seemingly natural choices. In both approaches they use warrants related partly to ‘the best for older people’, partly to ‘the common good of economizing’. The conclusions drawn are that the care managers by applying risk management and extensive alliance-strategies are not really able to question their own work situation and that they perform their work in a context of different parties restraining themselves. The implications for social work policy and practice are that the approach referring to older people’s self-determination while actually dealing in risk assessment must be thoroughly reconsidered. Other practical implications are that the idea of the purchaser/provider-model must be clarified, beyond the assessment of resources.