Person centred control!

There are many in social care who profess to be innovators, life changers, transformationalists etc. etc. they create words, strap lines, or even documents like ripping a page from a diary and calling it life changing, these are 'PERSONALISATION / PERSON CENTRED THINKING EXPERTS'

Huh?

In the world of social care there is a place some call service land, where people who are labelled as 'needy' exist so they can have things done to them or for them, this is because they are seen by those in the know as not being 'capable'.

It's a world society has created; shameful yes, especially in our modern day world, BUT, look a little deeper and these so called experts in person centred approaches are creating a land within service land. A land which creates more conditions, more controls, more measures by mapping out what you will do, how you will do it, what time you need to get up & how much will it cost? what time you need to get dressed & how much will it cost? what time you need wipe your backside & how much will it cost? (get the picture?) you write it all down so the world and his wife knows every last detail of your life, parents, social workers, commissioning managers, panels, financial assessment teams, service providers, social care staff etc. etc. then they sign it off & say there you go, this puts you in control!! Well as long as its within budget, staff turn up on time, you don't dare change your mind & decide you want want to wipe your backside at that time (bit harsh maybe, but not far from the truth).

In reality they are in control of you and they are making money from you, selling these bits of paper & words for substantial amounts of money & then blog & tweet about how great they are, doing this for the greater good, while the rest of us, the real people just get on with it! Seeing what the day brings, letting people make choices when they want to & not have to think ahead for the next 6 months, because the bit of paper on my wall says I have to.

I'm not completely cynical & think person centred approaches are bad, the approaches are much needed, I just think the bandwagon is now overladen & these experts have stopped seeing people because they have another book or product to sell.

So I don't care what you call it, or what pictures or words you come up with, you carry on placing further control on people's lives......... Me? I'll see what tomorrow brings & i'm going to put a pretty bow on it & sell it to the highest bidder..................... ;-)



So here's a novel approach to be person centred, why don't we just get on with it? Let people live their lives the way they want without having to write a prescriptive list