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A little thread about attitudes to residential care and group supported living. Not very well thought out or anything, and by no means intended to 'get at' anyone, just some responses to things I've read and heard from professionals, including social workers...
I often about those people who have moved into residential care/group supported living because their family could no longer care for them in a way that preserved their relationships as something other than carer/cared for, as parents, children, spouses and so on...
... and wondering how the prevailing narrative that care home and supported living arrangements are, in general, âbadâ or undesirable makes those people, their families and the many, many dedicated workers supporting them feel.
I've noticed how this narrative has led to recent framing of care homes as a public health risk. While that might be true in a very real and pressing sense, I again wonder how that may make the people who live in such homes, their families and the workers who support them feel?
IMO we need a much more nuanced, (culturally) sensitive and pluralistic debate about adult social care. One that goes beyond care homes are bad/community living is good. What is community anyway? Whose conception are we upholding? Who are we asking?
Iâve seen residential care and group living situations that constitute vibrant, diverse communities, just as Iâve seen misery and isolation imposed in the name of prompting âindependenceâ and âcommunity livingâ.
Iâve also observed some cultures and practices in care homes/group living and agree that cause me concern, on occasion a great deal. I agree there are too many examples of poor care. In my view, one example is one too many. I believe we could do better, always.
I also believe that a fairer and more inclusive society in which everyone has access to social capital and resources to enable them thrive within their communities would likely lead to far lower need for residential support, and that we should work towards that.
But if we seek to consign communal accommodation and care wholesale to the dustbin of history are we not in danger of imposing our own values on others? Of assuming that life 'in the community' is right for everybody, that everyone ascribes to the same (white, Western) values?
Is it true that everyone stands to gain from this particular vision of society? The implication of this would appear to be that a person who chooses a life in such a home is mistaken or misinformed. I have met such people and I don't believe either of those things is true of them
I don't really have a point here except to encourage a more pluralistic and nuanced conception of social care and to offer the view that alongside increasing community options, a (not insubstantial) strand of adult social care reform should focus on...
... raising/maintaining expectations of what group living situations can support people to achieve, guided and shaped by those who know best: the people that live, benefit from and want to be in them.
This comment on a recent Community Care piece speaks to some of the attitudes, responses and approaches to care homes from & by, I'm sorry to say, social workers. While not IME very common, I have observed such things myself. A little more respect please.
https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2020/12/15/social-work-without-social-heartbreaking-impact-separation-care-home-residents/
https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2020/12/15/social-work-without-social-heartbreaking-impact-separation-care-home-residents/
Excuse the typos!
