Navigating Professional Boundaries: Impacts on Culturally Grounded Care Provided by Māori Home-based Carers in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

This study investigates how organisational professional boundary drawing affects the ability of Māori home-based carers (HBCs) in Aotearoa New Zealand to provide culturally grounded care. As in many caring professions, this home-based sector relies on the fulfilment that caring is assumed to bring to workers in order to attract and retain good staff. Such meaningfulness is tied to the close relationships and rapport needed to undertake intimate cares. Paradoxically, these relationships are discouraged through organisational and professional boundary drawing that is designed to maintain distance between care workers and their clients. Through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) methodology, it was found that Māori HBCs experienced significant tensions when navigating the drawing of professional boundaries. These boundaries, while deemed necessary for legal, client and worker safety, are underpinned by Western cultural values and social norms, legitimised in Western models of care. These can conflict with Māori ethics of care, which emphasise relationality and belonging through whānau (extended family) roles and responsibilities. These insights call for a re-evaluation of professional boundary drawing to better align with culturally grounded care models, advocating for policies that support the integration of tikanga Māori in home-based care.