Transcript Slide 1

International week at Laurea Tikkurila
1st March 2010
Dr Mary Larkin
De Montfort University
Leicester
• the concepts of ”service user” and “carer”
• the empowerment of service users
• the empowerment of carers
• the future promotion of service user and
carer empowerment
DEFINITION OF
“EMPOWERMENT”
“degrees of empowerment are measured by the
existence of choice, the use of choice and the
achievement of choice” (Alsop, R. and Heinsohn
(2005:4)
• move away from institutional care to
‘community care’ in the 1980s - National
Health Service and Community Care Act 1990
• care for those in need which is based in their
homes and mainly provided by families and
friends on an informal basis, supported by
formal care
• creation of 2 new identifiable groups in
society
This has been shaped by:
• the social equality and the modernisation
discourses
• policy initiatives
User involvement
Self-management
Personalised models
of care
• involved in the planning and development of
services
• contribute to professional training and social work
education
• design and conduct research
• have their own user-led organisations e.g. National
Service User Network
• hold positions in national social care organisations
e.g. General Social Care Council
•
Expert Patient Programme (EPP) (Department of
Health,2001) (http://www.expertpatients.co.uk/)
•
individuals have more control over their health by
managing it and their treatment in partnership with
health care professionals
•
6 week self care skills training course delivered by
lay tutors
•
each patient is an expert about their own condition
•
use of patient expertise to build local support
networks
• place the individual at the centre of the health and
social care process
• foster independence more choice and control over
care
• referred to as personalisation
(http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Socialcarereform/
Personalisation)
• central to personalisation is self directed support e.g.
- direct payments
- individual budgets
3. THE EMPOWERMENT OF
CARERS
This has been facilitated through:
•
legislative acts
•
carers movement
National
Strategy
for Carers (1999)
Employment
Relations Act (1999)
Carers and Disabled Children’s Act (2000)
The Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act (2000)
Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act (2004)
National Carers
Strategy (2008)
Carers movement
• growth the size and power of national and local carers
organizations
• advocacy role increased
• government website for carers (http://www.carers.gov.uk)
• Carers UK – “the voice of carers” (http://www.carersuk.org)
4. THE FUTURE PROMOTION
OF SERVICE USER AND CARER
EMPOWERMENT
• emphasis on interdependency and empowerment of
both service users and carers
• evidence efforts to empower service users and carers
continues (www.dh.gov.uk and www.sdo.lshtm.ac.uk)
• criticisms
• possible ways forward:
- address underlying attitudes
- learning from others
- collaborative working
- research
CONTACT ME !
[email protected]