Tweet

@socfuture

@socfuture

More from @neilmcrowther

Neil Crowther

@neilmcrowther

Jan 26

At the start of January my mum collapsed. Neighbours called an ambulance, which arrived relatively quickly & she was taken to A&E where she spent the next 27 hours on a trolley in a corridor before being moved to a ward. She had had a minor stroke.

A&E was like a field hospital in a war zone. Echoing what others have said, despite all this A&E staff remained patient, kind, good-humoured & courteous. My mum then spent the next 8 days in various wards in the hospital. Hospitals are not great places to recover.

I saw great things. But I also still saw what I saw when my dad was on a stroke ward in 2019: water and food placed out of reach of patients, without any help offered to drink or eat, then taken away again without question.

Read 11 tweets

Neil Crowther

@neilmcrowther

Jan 24

@AlzSocCampaigns

From what we know of the plans it falls far short of the dementia strategy @AlzSocCampaigns were hoping for, in both focus & scope. People living with dementia now are not really the focus of this strategy - it's about preventing the diseases & conditions that give rise to it

https://twitter.com/alzheimerssoc/status/1617894741634609152

@AlzSocCampaigns

Laudable tho that might be, the lives & wellbeing many hundreds of thousands of people with dementia & their families seem not to be the focus here. I hope perhaps @AlzSocCampaigns @KateLeeCEO might put their considerable talents towards securing a social care strategy instead.

@rcsloggett

The work they have done with @rcsloggett is really helpful, but as the Archbishop's Commission on Reimagining Care has said, what is needed is a coalition of organisations with a share purpose to reshape public mindsets & expectations

Read 5 tweets

Neil Crowther

@neilmcrowther

Jan 10

We're at a really dangerous moment for people who have cause to call on the NHS or draw on social care, not simply because those 'systems' or so overstretched, but because as at the start of the pandemic, we're elevating them & the pressures *they* face as the primary concern

We might assume these are entirely aligned goals, but as we saw from discharge to care homes at the start of the pandemic, they are not always. Political & media optics are shaping strategy e.g. buying tens of thousands of care home 'beds' when only suitable for a small %

But it runs deeper than that. Anyone who has been in hospital or been with an older family member in hospital will have felt acutely that sense of powerlessness. It is *the* most vulnerable situation one can be in. At a time like this that asymmetry of power can tip even further

Read 7 tweets

Neil Crowther

@neilmcrowther

Jan 9

Today seems like an important moment to repost this blog, based on our extensive research & development with people who draw on support to live our lives - some basic rules when talking about social care #LivesNotBeds socialcarefuture.org.uk/want-to-help-c…

1. It's about us & people we love & care about, not beds, visits, packages, blockages, flows
2. Be about creating something good, not something less bad
3. Sell the brownie, not the ingredients - how does social care improve our lives?

4. Ignite supportive, pro-social values - avoid creating threat & insecurity, and expunge 'vulnerable' from your vocabulary - tee up self-direction, reciprocity & belonging
5. Speak of and to a 'larger us', don't invoke 'them & us'

Read 4 tweets

Neil Crowther

@neilmcrowther

Jan 9

There are people stranded in hospital, being made less fit & well by that experience, not because they can't go home, but because diagnostics are logjammed so decisions about their treatment/fitness to go are being delayed & if they did go home, their only route back is via A&E

And noone wants to go back to the start of that queue. So...invest in speeding up diagnostics & where on balance it's safe to do so, discharge to a quick outpatient appointment. Otherwise the irony is that the NHS is making more people unwell than it is aiding recovery.

NHS has to think about the whole person & their health & wellbeing, not just the presenting 'issue' in making decisions about discharge. People are being harmed by being kept in 'beds' in ways that will more likely see them rebound to A&E soon after they go home.

Read 4 tweets

Neil Crowther

@neilmcrowther

Mar 2, 2022

Some further observations on the historic departure points when it comes to 'person centred care as it relates to people with dementia & people with learning disabilities - comparing Kitwood's 'essential psychological needs' with John O'Brien's '5 accomplishments'

The key omission in Kitwood's list is, for me, choice & control, including over where & with who to live, and it's the loss of control that permits institutionalisation - physically & behaviorally - and the 'malignant social psychology' therein.

I see control as a psychological need, fundamental to personhood & wellbeing, as well as a right - as O'Brien expresses it. However, I'm struck that advocates for independent living (and I count myself among them) have (a) elevated choice as the primary principle...

Read 8 tweets

Share this page!

Neil Crowther

People who liked this thread also liked...

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @neilmcrowther

Neil Crowther

Neil Crowther

Neil Crowther

Neil Crowther

Neil Crowther

Neil Crowther

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Send Email!