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........

A total institution may be defined as a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered way of life

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..................