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Social work and elder abuse: a Foucauldian analysis
- Author:
- POWELL Jason L.
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work and Society: International Online Journal, 10(1), 2012, Online only
- Publisher:
- University of Bielefeld
This paper argues that an accelerating interest in the safety and financial security of older people is central to understanding modern care policy. Specifically, it explores how a surveillance culture is being developed to stabilise community care policy at a time of considerable underlying uncertainty. The theoretical work of Michel Foucault is drawn upon to raise questions of power, of unintended consequences, and of the impact of care managerial techniques. The paper argues that the 'discovery' of elder abuse legitimates practices in which the state monitors and co-ordinates but does not intervene. This idea can be presented as ‘inspection minus intervention equals surveillance’. Social policy has transferred the financial and emotional responsibilities for care from welfare professionals to informal carers, leading to a state of uncertainty. The paper argues that, in order to provide a mechanism for formalising informal care and to legitimise a role for welfare professionals, there has been an increasing emphasis on forms of abuse perpetrated by carers on older people. The relationship between the state and older people is therefore being reduced to one of surveillance and the enforcement of an oppressive notion of what community obligation might entail.
Personalization and community care: a case study of the British system
- Author:
- POWELL Jason L.
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing International, 37(1), March 2012, pp.16-24.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
In the United Kingdom, personalisation services are developing as a social policy response to user demands for more tailored, effective and flexible forms of health and social care support. This process is being implemented under the personalization which is also seen as a vehicle for promoting service user rights through increasing participation, empowerment and control while also promoting self-restraint by having users manage the costs of their health and social care. This paper reviews the background to the emergence of this policy shift, assesses the existing research evidence for personalization albeit limited and identifies themes for future policy research in this area.