ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the meaning and operationalization of the sociological concept of "caretakers". It explores different types of caretaking and caretakers regularly involved in the single-room occupancy (SRO) world. The chapter develops dual perspective, initially seeing the SRO world through the eyes of the cared-for and the caretaker. It discusses external or internal caretakers. External caretakers are persons whose role or occupation demands that they physically enter the SRO. world only intermittently. The internal caretakers, conversely, are those who are there all of the time. Most of the caretakers involved in these interactions would fall into the "service-" or "market-oriented" categories. The chapter discusses the hospital-based services, SRO'.ers have supplementary sources of medical care. This care is provided in two ways: the first is through the offices of medical caretakers, such as physicians, visiting nurses, specialized social workers, and pharmacists; and the second is through a folk-derived system which incorporates a combination of folk and scientific elements.
