Showing papers by "Jo Moriarty published in 2013"
TL;DR: Caring for America is a thoroughly informative and enjoyable book about a group of workers whose role is acknowledged to be essential but whose lives and experiences tend to be invisible that unpicks the complicated story behind the way that long-term care is organized in the USA.
Abstract: There is a fascinating insight into the interplay between the personal and the political in the final chapter of this book in which Boris and Klein recount how President Barack Obama spent a day with Pauline Beck, an African-American home care worker and trade union member, during the 2008 presidential primaries. Over the course of the day, he cooked breakfast and lunch, made the bed, cleaned the house and did laundry. He went on to mention this experience when he proposed removing an exemption that has meant that most home care workers are not covered by federal legislation giving them the right to a minimum wage and overtime pay. At the time of writing, it is not clear whether this proposal will be enacted. It has been attacked by a group of Republican Senators, who have variously described it a “classic example of Washington coming up with a well-meaning idea that . . . does far more harm than good for seniors, workers, and taxpayers” and an intervention that will drive up costs and “force [families] to put loved ones in institutionalised care facilities” (Johanns, 2012). Does this construction of care work “as a labor of love” mean that care work should be excluded from the usual rules about paid employment? Why should differences between care workers and other paid employees exist? These are some of the questions that Boris and Klein seek to answer in their authoritative and wide-ranging account of the history of home care workers in the USA. It explains their origin during the New Deal when jobs in “housekeeping services” and as “homemakers” were seen as a way of providing “needy” – mainly African-American – women with employment while simultaneously easing the pressures on overcrowded hospitals by enabling people with disabilities and long-term conditions to be supported at home through to the present day when funding for care has become one of the most contested issues for politicians seeking to reduce fiscal deficits while also maintaining fragile economic growth. Boris and Klein are not the first commentators to identify the low status associated with this type of work. Neither are they the first to highlight the over-representation of people from minority ethnic groups and migrant workers. Their strength is to locate these debates within the wider historical context in a way that combines scholarship and passion. There is a wonderful tradition of writing about labor in the USA, which includes “Nickel and Dimed” (Ehreinreich, 2001) and “How the Other Half Works” (Waldinger & Lichter, 2003) that is rarely equalled in the UK. Caring for America is a real tour de force that unpicks the complicated story behind the way that long-term care is organized in the USA. This is a book whose primary readership will probably be those interested in long-term care policy or labor and trade union history. However, for anyone seeking an understanding of the “story” behind the way that care is organized in the USA, Caring for America is a thoroughly informative and enjoyable book about a group of workers whose role is acknowledged to be essential but whose lives and experiences tend to be invisible.
60 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: Good communication skills are the starting point for all the other skills that social care workers need, and without training, it would be impossible to establish effective and respectful relationships with people who use services.
Abstract: Good communication skills are the starting point for all the other skills that social care workers need. Without them, it would be impossible to establish effective and respectful relationships with people who use services.1 Contrary to some popular misconceptions, these skills are not just something that we either have, or do not have, but are learned.2–4 Without training, we would find it much harder to listen effectively to someone talking about a sensitive topic or difficult experience, break bad news as sensitively as possible, or communicate with a person who has communication difficulties, such as those arising from conditions like dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or following a stroke.
16 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that social workers need to be aware of definitions when describing what is being suggested as part of a support plan or reviewed in the context of desired outcomes and the need to think about levels of needs and access to any day opportunity.
Abstract: The term ‘day opportunities’ is used in the context of personalisation in England to refer to alternatives to day centres. This article employs the lens of legislation on equalities to comment on access to day opportunities by different groups of eligible older people. It reports and discusses findings from a scoping review of the literature conducted in 2012 and updated in 2013 which searched for research and ‘grey literature’ material. Findings from the scoping review are presented using the different elements of the Equalities Act 2010. We conclude that social workers need to be aware of definitions when describing what is being suggested as part of a support plan or reviewed in the context of desired outcomes. We draw attention to the need to think about levels of needs and access to any day opportunity. Social workers are well placed to identify whether these changes have a differential impact on certain groups. This exploration of the literature on user experiences and outcomes from day opportunitie...
6 citations
TL;DR: Media coverage of the variable treatment received by people using health and social care services acts as a reminder of the challenges faced by practitioners in maintaining high standards of practice.
Abstract: Media coverage of the variable treatment received by people using health and social care services acts as a reminder of the challenges faced by practitioners in maintaining high standards of profes...
4 citations