Orchestrating home Experiences of spousal stroke care

The private space of the home is an important site of healthcare, and most rehabilitation following intensive in-hospital treatment takes place in domestic settings. Home in this context is represented as an a priori entity that naturally provides continuity and stability. This takes for granted that family carers will maintain therapeutic activities and the sense of ‘being at home’ – and all of the accompanying emotional dimensions – within the home environment. Drawing on ethnographic research including interviews with spouses of people who had a stroke while of working age (29-54) in Victoria, Australia, we explore how the reconstruction of home as a site for post-stroke recovery changed the experiences and meanings given to the idea of home. Home as a therapeutic place depended on constant orchestrating work by spousal carers in reconfiguring the physical, symbolic and practical elements of home. This was not a straightforward or singular process, as tensions arose in trying to incorporate the new, post-stroke therapeutic landscape and pre-stroke conceptualisations and lived realities of home life.