Realising participation
Subtitle: elderly people as active users of health and social care
By: Kathryn Roberts, Tom Chapman.
Contributors: Chapman, Tom.
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Aldershot, Hampshire, England; Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
Subjects: Older people -- Services for -- Great Britain.; Older people -- Care -- Great Britain.; Medical care -- Great Britain.; Social work with older people -- Great Britain.; Health Services for the Aged -- Great Britain.; Consumer Participation -- Aged -- Great Britain.; Research Design -- Aged -- Great Britain.; Social Work -- Aged -- Great Britain.
Description: "During the last twenty years government rhetoric in the UK has increasingly advocated that statutory health and social care services should regard and treat recipients as "consumers" in the same way as companies and organisations in the private sector. This involves a considerable cultural change on the part of both service providers and their clients, and this timely study explores the extent to which such a cultural change is actually taking place in British society. The utilisation of welfare services by a sample of people aged seventy and above on discharge from inpatient care and in a short period afterwards is examined as a critical testbed for key components of consumerism, including participation, representation, access, choice, information and redress. The book explores not only the extent to which opportunities are being provided for users to play an active role in their care, but also their degree of willingness to assume such a role. By investigating the experiences of clients from a generation which might be considered relatively resistant to a more active participation in health and social care, the study offers an important insight into the extent to which a real social transformation is indeed taking place in the British welfare services."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-248).
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1 Introduction; title: 2 User Participation in the Welfare State; title: 3 The Policy Concept; title: 4 The Position of Elderly People in UK Society; title: 5 Research Design and Methodology; title: 6 Findings; title: 7 Discussion I: Barriers and Enablers in the Use of; title: Health and Social Care; title: 8 Discussion II: Social Differentiation and the Use of; title: Health and Social Care; title: 9 Summary and Evaluation.