Tuesday 26 January 2016

Like situated people.........

I passed a care home the other day, out in the hills 'where they're meant to be', tucked out of the way, where the cold wind can blow the ails & evils from them.

It reminded me of one of the first 'social care' books I read, it gave me a different perspective when I was 16 years old & trying to make sense of social care & what it meant to me.

The most intriguing line that I still remember some 26 years later........


At least back then they were honest about why they built these 'institutions', it was a belief representative of that period in time; but nowadays the social care systems belief is dressed up in a myriad of pretty colours and matching curtains called 'extra care', they purport to be inclusive & for the greater good, yet they are recreating Erving Goffmans 1961 description of asylums, where a large number of like situated individuals are cut off from society for an appreciable period of time............

You see, they recreate everything a person needs under one roof, no one ever has to leave, confined to a structured routine of hand overs & medication rounds, lost in corridors & closed doors; Goffman wrote that book in 1961, 55 years later we have taken a huge step backwards in supporting older persons....ah but we're dementia friendly & cheap they say, ah that's ok then who cares what you do to people as long as you're cheap......... We are a victim of fat cats profiteering in a fictional economic downturn; this is merely Social care excellence framed in a thatcheresque brand of profit before people, lock them up, tie a pretty bow on it & the public will never know..................

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