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The development of community care for people with learning disabilities 1913 - 1946
- Authors:
- WALMSLEY Jan, ROLPH Sheena
- Journal article citation:
- Critical Social Policy, 21(1), February 2001, pp.59-80.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article explores from an historical perspective the emerging debates on the similarities and differences between community care and institutional care. While institutional care has been widely condemned, community care has been welcomed as offering greater opportunities for adults who have long term care needs. The article argues, however, that it is more helpful to regard institutional and community care as a continuum, and draw on ongoing research into the history of community care for people with learning difficulties to show that community care has a longer history than has widely been assumed, and that some forms of community care were as much motivated by a desire to control as they were by a wish to provide care. The article ends with some consideration of the relevance of such historical studies for modern understandings of community care.
Community care in perspective: care, control and citizenship
- Editors:
- WELSHMAN John, WALMSLEY Jan, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 278p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Basingstoke
The book fills a major gap in medical and social history by offering a detailed account of community provision for so called "vulnerable adults", from 1948 in the UK. The book focuses primarily on people with learning difficulties, but offers insights into community care more broadly, particularly through the use of key themes. The book has a contemporary relevance to aspiring and existing practitioners in health and social care because although historical lessons do not provide any kind of blueprint for the future, an understanding of the evolution of community care is of practical help to policy makers and service providers in offering a context for their work.
'A pair of stout shoes and an umbrella': the role of the mental welfare officer in delivering community care in East Anglia: 1946-1970
- Authors:
- ROLPH Sheena, ATKINSON Dorothy, WALMSLEY Jan
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 33(3), April 2003, pp.339-359.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This article describes an oral history research project which explored a little-known aspect of the history of social work: the history of mental welfare officers and their role in community care. We interviewed former MWOs and analysed both private and public documents to explore this history in East Anglia between 1946 and 1970. In the paper we address three themes. In the first place, we argue that MWOs, as well as carrying out their statutory function in overseeing hospital admissions, had a significant role in community care for people with learning difficulties and psychiatric problems. They began to advocate on behalf of clients, often making a case for home support and they supported parents' groups. Increasingly, they carried out case-work and painstaking social work with families. In the second place, we explore the surprising finding that, among MWOs, genericism was not as new a concept in 1970 as many writers have assumed. Finally, we analyse some gender issues that emerged from the research and the way they influenced attitudes to community care held by some MWOs. The paper looks at the gradual development of a profession from one with little consistent training, to one in which specialist education began to be seen as an important aspect of the role of the MWO.