Skill-building for older people, so that they can take control

An experienced social worker in the US (you may be confused that it's about Rochdale, but it's a Rochdale in New York somewhere) talks about how he became interested in working with older people. This is important because a lot of social workers (who of course train when they're young) are mainly interested in working with children and young people. Older people, as a result don't get their fair share of the good social workers - although he makes the point that you have to earn trust, it doesn't come with a degree.  He emphasises supporting and not competing with older people's community organisations and recognising the issues that are important to them - crime in this instance even though most professionals think concern is over exaggerated. Nevertheless, it's a real concern for many older people, and it's important to take it seriously. It's also good to help people feel they can do something about what's happening to them, so they gave observational skills training to the older people, so they could be good witnesses when crime affected them.

A positive skill-building approach to working with older people, which recognises they can take control and can build their own contributions to the community; they don't have to have things done to them.

Link to the article.

Granny pods - keep older people in garden sheds

I'm intrigued by the American Association of Retired People promoting the idea of granny pods in your back garden. Yes, it allows older people to 'age in place' as the American jargon has it, but however luxurious this means keeping your older relative in a garden shed. Even more than with a 'granny annexe' it makes them very clearly subsidiary to the life of their younger relatives.

Domestic or institutional care homes - pokey vs non-human?

One of my occasional pictures of facilities for older people. This is one of our local residential care homes. Note the emphasis on family management - a claim for more personal care than a big chain. That is supported by using an extended detached family home. But very often the conversion and extensions required lead to a maze of fire precautions and corridors, whereas bigger buildings are less atmospheric. made more so because there is likely not to be family management. Does this provide choice in the market?

The domestic (and pokey) or the institutional (and nonhuman) - which should we prefer, for what purposes? And can the domestic be non-pokey and the institutional human?

Prevention: free older people's opportunities

You might be interested to see a 'less than 10 minutes' SCIE 'Social Care TV' film about various projects for promoting well-being for older people. There is also some talking-head stuff from Julien Forder at the Personal Social Services Research Unit about what constitutes prevention.

My comment is: we need to think carefully about prevention, because government tends to think of it as being about preventing them coming in for extra expenditure. But what it should be about is helping people attain the right lifestyle according to their own wishes. Is having lots of older people's clubs the right approach? It all looks a bit institutional here. It might be all right for some, but not for all. For some people, promoting involvement in the local pub may be more right. We're still thinking about organising things for people, rather than making it possible to free older people's opportunities.

Link to SCIE 'Social Care TV page on promoting well-being for older people

Sassies (single sexy and sixty or over): plan for the future as well as pulling the men

Trying to sort out my Clipboard site (where I post the odd comments on news of the day) I was reminded of this old Daily Mail article on Sassies: that is single, sexy and sixty (or over). Apparently, in 2010, women of this age were seeking lots of sexy fun.

My comment: I wonder what plans they're making for their possibly less active late-seventies and eighties. I don't want to pour cold water on the Daily Mail's opportunity to publish loads of attractive photos of beautiful women in their sixties, but this is a period when you can be zapping life and also planning for your future.

I recommend lasting powers of attorney, a funeral plan, a will and settling into an adaptable home where you can live well with a greater degree of disability. You can still go on pulling the men for a lot longer than your sixties, as any care home owner knows.

Link to my Clipboard site.

How to steal someone's identity: read the widely available care home reports at your local hospital

My wife fell down the stairs, so we went to the Urgent Care Centre (what used to be called Accident and Emergency) at our local hospital. 

While waiting by her trolley, I read with interest a report left on the counter. It was from a care home, sent in with a previous patient, giving full details of his and his nearest relative’s name, address, date of birth and information that would allow me steal his identity. It included his medical details and symptoms of dementia, so you could probably steal his identity without his knowing.

I thought about mentioning this to the computer-users studiously avoiding any eye-contact with the rest of us in the room, but I didn’t because my wife and I have a policy of being nice to everyone involved in caring for us. This is the most likely tactic for getting good service from harassed professionals in the NHS. So they had no opportunity to cease revealing the personal details of one of their patients to all and sundry arriving at the counter because our ‘be nice’ policy prevented my handing the report back.

It’s an example, though, of how easy it is to be careless about making sure that patient information is not routinely left around for anyone to gawp at. It’s lucky I am a registered social worker who keeps things confidential and carefully forgot the things I saw; they might not be so lucky next time.

Your medical information from your GP for commercial interests? - Lexology reblog

A post from a lawyer with severe doubts about the confidentiality of patient information, now that the government is proposing to collect GP information, aimed to be with the aim of evaluating GPs. But the information will identify patients, and the government has made a big thing about using NHS information to help commercial companies to compete in the international marketplace.

So who will rally be using your information and why? And will they ask you for permission and tell you how they are going to use it? Seems not.

This is the link to the legal commentary.

Link to the government proposals.