international week at laurea tikkurila 1 st march 2010 dr mary larkin de montfort university...
TRANSCRIPT
International week at Laurea Tikkurila1st March 2010Dr Mary Larkin
De Montfort University Leicester
Promoting service user and carer empowerment in
health and social care
• 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
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
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
1. THE CONCEPTS OF ”SERVICE USER” AND “CARER
This has been shaped by: • the social equality and the modernisation
discourses
• policy initiatives
2. THE EMPOWERMENT OF SERVICE USERS
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
User involvement
• 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
Self-management
• 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
Personalised models of care
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
