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Who will care for older people? A case study of working with destructiveness and despair in long-stay care
- Author:
- TERRY Paul
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work Practice, 12(2), 1998, pp.209-216.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Illustrates the reduction of services of older people in a case study of a long-stay NHS service which has been transferred to a private profit-making company.
Delivered into safe hands
- Authors:
- LINEHAN Tim, BOOTH Sylvia
- Journal article citation:
- Care Weekly, 18.2.93, 1993, p.12.
Considers what needs to be done when care home fails due to financial problems, citing the experience of BML Health Care Services in taking over the running of such homes.
“A game of two halves?” Understanding the process and outcomes of English care home closures: qualitative and quantitative perspectives
- Authors:
- GLASBY Jon, ALLEN Kerry, ROBINSON Suzanne
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 53(1), 2019, pp.78-98.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
With care services increasingly delivered via a market there is always a risk that care homes could fail financially or struggle in terms of quality, ultimately having to close. When this happens, the received wisdom is that subsequent relocation can be detrimental to the health and well‐being of older residents (possibly even culminating in increased mortality). However, there is very little formal evidence in the United Kingdom (UK) or beyond to guide policymakers and local leaders when undertaking such sensitive work. Against this background, this article reports findings from an independent evaluation of what is believed to be the largest care home closure programme in the UK (and possibly beyond). This consisted of qualitative interviews with older people, families, care staff, and social work assessors during the closure process in one case study care home and one linked day centre, as well as self‐reported health and quality of life data for older people from 13 homes/linked day centers at initial assessment, 28 days after moving and at 12‐month follow up. The study is significant in presenting public data about such a contested topic from such a large‐scale closure process, in its focus on both process and outcomes, in its mixed‐methods approach, and in its engagement with older people, families, and care staff alongside the use of more formal outcome measures. Despite significant distress part‐way through the process, the article suggests that outcomes either stayed the same or improved for most of our sample up to a year after moving to new services. Care homes closures may thus be a “tale of two halves”, with inevitable distress during the closure but, if done well, with scope for improved outcomes for some people in the longer term. These findings are crucial for current policy and practice given that the risk of major closures seems to be growing and given that there is virtually no prior research on which to base local or national closure processes. While some of this research is specific to England, the underlying issue of care home closures and lessons learned around good practice will also apply to other countries. (Edited publisher abstract)
A moving story
- Author:
- OGDEN Joy
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Today, 20.2.92, 1992, p.12.
- Publisher:
- British Association of Social Workers
Norfolk SSD's plans to close five of its homes for elderly people in order to furnish funds to improve their remaining homes is similar to the situation in many authorities, where closure or transfer to the private or voluntary sector is taking place. Residents do not have security of tenure and their objections to closure or transfer do not figure prominently in the decision making process.
Questions raised for local authorities when old people are evicted from their care homes
- Author:
- SCOURFIELD Peter
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 34(4), June 2004, pp.501-516.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Successive government policies have created a situation where most residential and nursing care is provided by the independent sector. It is in the nature of a marketized and privatized care system that homes will periodically close or change ownership. The physical and mental well-being of elderly residents experiencing eviction and relocation can be seriously damaged by the experience. No policy and practice guidelines have been issued from central government to cover how care home closures should be managed. Local authorities are therefore dealing with such events on an ad hoc basis. Understandably, the main emphasis is often put on actually finding appropriate alternative placements. Practices vary across different local authorities. This article asks whether the necessary work required to minimize the harmful effects caused by the stress of relocation is actually being carried out properly. It also raises the questions of what exactly should be offered to older people when they are given notice to quit, who is best qualified to do the work and whether care management as it has developed within the ‘purchaser/provider framework’, is adequate to the task. In short, where can social work for older people be found when it is needed?
Care home closures
- Author:
- AGE CONCERN
- Publisher:
- Age Concern
- Publication year:
- 2002
- Pagination:
- 32p.
Explains possible reasons why care homes might close, the possible advantages and disadvantages to residents, good practice that home owners and managers should follow, what residents and their supporters can do to influence what happens, and the legal position. Residents in local authority homes potentially have much greater protection than those in independent sector homes.
No truce with furies
- Author:
- DAVENHILL Rachael
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work Practice, 12(2), 1998, pp.149-157.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Looks at some of the unconscious factors involved in the silencing of debate regarding the provision of long-term care for people in later life suffering from dementia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Particular attention is paid to factors internal and external which led to the decimation of local authority and NHS provision in this area and led to a shifting of care into the private and voluntary sector. The consequences of such malignant mirroring of the deteriorated mental state of the people services are meant to contain is discussed from a psychoanalytic perspective.