Understanding Care, Welfare and Community: A Reader

Care, welfare and community are three key concepts in contemporary social policy. This reader covers a wide range of topics associated with them and relevant to the delivery of care and support to adults. It includes a wide-ranging collection of articles by leading writers and researchers, some previously published, some newly commissioned. It also has first-hand accounts by users and providers of care and welfare in the community. Groups covered include people with mental health problems, homeless people, older people, people with learning difficulties and people with impairments. The focus throughout is on how policies and practice can be developed appropriately and sensitively through an understanding of current issues. The 40 chapters are grouped into four sections, each with an introduction. Five of the chapters are made up of extracts from a wide range of documents and testimonies. * Power and inequality * Difference and identity * Rights and risk *Territories and boundaries Most of the material relates to a diverse turn-of-the-century Britain, but this is set in a wider context enabling the student to explore the alternative realities of other countries and other times. Understanding Care, Welfare and Community provides an integrated, multidisciplinary overview of the many different aspects of community care. It is appropriate for students and professionals following a wide range of courses in social work, nursing, care, health, social policy, medicine, voluntary work and welfare services. It will also be a valuable resource for carers and practitioners, teachers and policy makers.

Table of Contents:
Preface Part One: Power and Inequality Introduction 1. Unsettled Lives (Extracts) 2. William and Teresa 3. The Effects of Poverty 4. Poverty and the Social Services 5. Witness to Welfare (Extracts) 6. The History of Community Care for People with Learning Difficulties 7.Multiple Oppression and the Disabled People's Movement 8. Campaigning and the Pensioners' Movement 9. Settling in and Moving On 10. Paying for Nursing Home Care Part Two: Difference and Identity Introduction 11. Different Communities (Extracts) 12. The Regeneration of Communities 13. Social Change, Networks and Family Life 14. Problematizing Social Care Needs in Minority Communities 15. A Child's View of Care in the Community 16. Community and Stigma (Extracts) 17. Ageing, Learning Difficulties and Maintaining Independence 18. Whiteness and Emotions in Social Care 19. On Becoming a Disabled Person 20. Remind me who I Am, Again Part Three: Rights and Risks Introduction 21. Risk and Dangerousness 22. Evaluating Self-Determination 23. Out of This World 24. The Prospect of Residential Care 25. Independence, Privacy and Risk 26. Malignant Social Psychology 27. Exposing Abuse in Care Homes 28. Regulating Informality: Small Homes and the Inspectors 29. Community Care Law and the Human Rights Act 1998 30. Self-Advocacy for People with Learning Difficulties Part Four: Territories and Boundaries Introduction 31. Community Care in the Information Age 32. Providing Support (Extracts) 33. Carework and Bodywork 34. European Policies on Home Care Services Compared 35. The Boundaries Between Health and Social Care Assessment in Action 37. The Importance of Housing and Home 38. Partnership Between Disabled People and Service Providers 39. Care as a Commodity 40. Good Companions (Extracts)