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HILDREN thrive best in their own homes, and on that axiom homemaker service is based. Its sefulness has increased as social workrs have learned how to help parents use The service advantageously.

Homemaker service as one part of ase work is an answer to parents who sk how they can keep their homes unctioning in spite of the temporary— or even permanent-incapacity or abence of the mother.

Short-time homemaker service, given luring a temporary absence of the nother from the home, is known as interim care." Long-time service, given during extended or permanent abence of the mother, is known as 'inclusive care."

Both short-time and long-time care given by homemakers afford children. the security of their own homes and the continued companionship of at least one parent. As the children grow they can develop with their father normal parent-child relationships, and with their brothers and sisters they can learn the give-and-take natural to children of the same family.

Much depends on father

A case worker uses homemaker service, of course, only when the family wants to maintain the home, and when one parent at least has a strong enough personality to make a constructive plan possible. This does not mean, however, that homemaker service should be considered only when a father is a stable, adequate person. On the contrary, the service is of value even when he is a passive and dependent person. His passivity, if not extreme, may be an asset, helping him take the role of mother for part of the time. The father for

Condensed from paper given at National Conference of Social Work, San Francisco, April 13-19.

Family Service Association of Cleveland

whom such care is most likely to succeed is the one with warmth of feeling for his children, and understanding of them. He needs enough stability to take more responsibility than he would carry if the mother were in the home, and he must be willing to cooperate with both the homemaker and the case worker. It is essential that the father retain his position as head of the household. Short-time service

Placement of the children because the mother is in a hospital or ill at home may be a traumatic experience for them. When the mother is having a new baby, for example, the children may be farmed out among neighbors or may be left at home uncared for unless the father stays with them. A homemaker, taking over the care of the children in their own home, enables the father to continue working and relieves his anxiety and the mother's about the home, thus facilitating her recovery. Many fathers try to arrange for this service themselves but find they cannot afford to pay what a competent person would charge.

Children are likely to suffer from fears aroused by their mother's illness and her absence from the home. If they stay in their own home these fears can be dealt with more easily and fears of the unknown are not so likely to arise. Tensions are lessened, so that the whole

family has a better chance of returning to normal living after the mother's convalescence.

In this way the sense of security of the C family was maintained. Mr. C came to the agency several months before his wife's confinement, asking for help in planning to prevent a repetition of previous difficulties. He said that the family could not again stand what happened when his wife was in the hospital for the birth of the youngest child. Then they had placed the children away from home. Worry over

them had sent Mrs. C into a nervous collapse that kept her in the hospital for several weeks and piled up doctor and hospital bills. The children later came home upset and fearful about what might happen next. The family took months to get back to ordinary life.

The case worker found physical conditions in the home poor but she also found close family ties and a fair amount of stability on the part of the parents, particularly the father. While the case worker was making plans to provide a homemaker she was able to help Mrs. C to some extent in getting over her insecurity and anxiety.

During Mrs. C's convalescence at home, the homemaker gave her some of the mothering she needed. She also helped Mrs. C to build up her feeling of adequacy by praising her good care of the children and by helping her plan her work more efficiently and by letting her know that her attitudes toward her children helped them to be happy and well-behaved.

The C's were enabled to maintain their family unity during a time that they had feared might bring a family break-down. As a result the parents are better able to meet future crises. Children need own home

Both short-time and long-time services are based on the same principles. The aim of long-time care is to give the children the opportunity to live in their own home with their own family. Parental warmth in their own home offers children the best opportunity of learning to become consciously aware of other people, to form patterns of independence and cooperation, and to develop self-confidence. The homemaker supplements the father's efforts to provide the right conditions for his children's physical, mental, and emotional development.

Case workers need a high degree of sensitivity and of professional skill to use homemaker service constructively in long-time care. Thorough evaluation and diagnosis are as necessary as in any other form of case work. Whether or not the family really wishes this kind of service should be determined during the exploration of all possible plans. The case worker must understand each member of the family in order to get a complete picture of the situation. She

must know their characteristics, the role played by each parent, and the place of each child in the family in order to select a suitable homemaker and to help her fit into the home. Much more detail about the way of living is needed than is usually obtained in case work. In order to supervise the homemaker the case worker must know about household management and equipment, low-cost food planning, and economical buying of clothing. Detailed discussion of finances with the parents is necessary to determine the amount the agency must contribute toward the homemaker's wages and toward buying needed household equipment.

The case worker will find herself in new, many-sided relations with the homemaker and with members of the family. Utmost skill is sometimes needed to keep a proper balance in these contacts.

The case worker will guide the homemaker while she is adjusting herself to the family, and often will help her in understanding problems caused by the absence of the mother and other problems more deeply rooted. The case worker may need to work directly with the father or some other member of the family as well as with the situation as a whole. At the same time she may be working on environmental and health problems, giving supportive help, and treating emotional problems. The case worker may give these same services in other family situations, but here she has that extra factor to consider-the homemaker.

As an example of the ramifications and complexities of the family situations that homemakers try to meet, let us look at the long-time care of the X children.

Mrs. X deserted her husband and four children when the responsibility for their care became too much for her. Deprived of love as a child, Mrs. X had a great need for material things, perhaps because they represented the love she lacked in childhood. Mr. X was crushed by his wife's desertion. He blamed himself because he had not given her the things she wanted. He had chosen, for example to keep a night job with moderate wages, that was secure rather than change to a temporary day job that paid more and would have satisfied his wife while it lasted.

After Mrs. X left, the children were cared for temporarily by an elderly relative. Then Mr. X sought the help of a social agency because he could not solve the problem alone. He was determined to keep the children together, yet knew he could not afford to hire a person competent to take care of them. Study by the case worker disclosed a strong feeling of confidence between father and children. The father showed willingness to cooperate with the agency, and a homemaker was placed in the home. The father's characteristic passivity made it easy for him to take, without complaint, full responsibility for the children during week ends and to cooperate with the homemaker. Yet his masculinity was

younger ones, Joe and Ann, did. I year-old Ann would year-old Ann would cry herself to at night, would wet the bed, and w wake up screaming for her moi After about 2 months she gave up cry and screaming, and in less than 6 mo she no longer wet the bed. She b to accept the homemaker and she proved in every way.

Joe, 4, presented a different pic: His aggressive behavior, resistanc control, refusal of food, and unresp siveness naturally caused concern to father and the homemaker. The d worker spent much time helping homemaker to win the boy's confide Finally he began to improve, though is still sensitive and easily hurt. He casionally has temper tantrums, but