Reading the home care fee implementation: Hürriyet and Sabah newspaper case studies

Home care fee; it can be defined as the support given to people who take care of disabled or elderly individuals in need of home care. In this context, being in need of care can be defined as being unable to continue his/her life without the help of others and being dependent on the help of others to meet his/her daily needs. The concept of social state also refers to a mixed economic structure in which social services and social assistance are mostly provided by the state, but economic development, employment and economic welfare are primarily and predominantly provided under market conditions. In other words, in the understanding of social policy, it is necessary to meet the basic needs and problems of individuals with social assistance. Social aids are included in the laws to which the institutions providing the aid are bound and the details of the conditions under which the aid will be provided are generally set out through regulations. Therefore, the home care fee, which is given depending on meeting certain criteria, is given to a person from the circle of relatives who will provide care support to the person in need of care. With the neoliberal policy approach, the state has abandoned its intervention in the economy and abandoned the social state approach by applying restrictions in social expenditures. Thus, the state's expenditures on care services are also considerably reduced. Rather than improving the quality of life of the person in need of care, the application of home care fee results in the burdening of the care responsibility of the person in need of care on a person from the family or relatives by providing a low economic support and it aims to minimise the demand for state-affiliated or private institutions providing inpatient or daytime services for people in need of care. Existing care and rehabilitation centres create the impression that they are sufficient since there is no increase in demand. Due to the traditional social structure in our country, the majority of applicants for home care fee are women. It is thought that the application of home care fee, which is thought to be important in terms of supporting people in need of care, poses significant problems for women who undertake the responsibility of care. In this study, the news items in the mainstream media, specifically Sabah and Hürriyet newspapers, covering the home care fee application were analysed. An evaluation and discussion has been carried out on the real purpose of the home care application and the problems it creates/may create.