ORCID

Abstract

Ireland’s population age profile is forecasted to increase over the coming decades which will have implications for the care responsibilities of families and the state. However, there is a paucity of quality elder care in Ireland. Elder care worker co-operatives could contribute to meeting this shortfall in supply. This study examines the impact of co-owned elder care provision in Ireland. A case study approach is employed with the Great Care Co-op (GCC) being the case selected. The findings emphasise that the GCC provides a quality service to its care recipients. The careworker members and family members of care recipients both believe that the standard of care provided is superior to that of a conventional investor-owned care provider. The findings also indicate that the governance structure of the GCC facilitates the delivery of a more responsive service. Both family members of care recipients and care-worker members believe that this is attributed to the Great Care Co-op being a co-operative. This research is innovative in that most of the key stakeholders are interviewed, including: care-worker members, a care recipient, family members of care recipients and representatives of the Health Services Executive (HSE) who liaise with the GCC regarding the provision of care for older people.

Keywords

CO-OPERATIVE, COLLECTIVE CONTROL, ELDER CARE, MEMBER

Publication Date

2025-07-01

Publication Title

The Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity

Volume

14

Issue

1

First Page

49

Last Page

75

Deposit Date

2025-07-29

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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