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

CONTACT ME !

mlarkin@dmu.ac.uk