Opinion piece. ‘These revised steps towards “reform” will do little to radically change the system and, at best, are the bare minimum needed to stop it from collapsing. The impact of no credible plan in the context of the current pressures, will be felt by the millions of people who need care and support to live their lives, their carers, and those working in the sector.'
The researchers made several recommendations for policy and practice of how needs related to both homelessness and trauma can be understood and addressed together.
Self-neglect can be associated with hoarding and other mental health problems
Self-neglect is an extreme lack of self-care, sometimes associated with hoarding, and may be a result of other issues such as addictions, according to the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Children in asylum-seeking families are increasingly subject to deterrent host nation policies that undermine security in the post-migration context, however, little is known on the mental health consequences of such policy. This study examined the impact of prolonged visa insecurity on child mental health, by comparing two cohorts of refugee children entering Australia between 2010 and 2013, distinguished by visa security. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This paper aims to explore the content of Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) from older adult care homes to understand how safety is understood and might be measured in practice. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
A combined service as outlined by Belcher et al’s study would certainly be of value to service users, and potentially improve the capacity of IAPT practitioners to deliver treatment interventions effectively.
However, in any pilot initiative that follows this research, it will be essential to consider the implications for practitioners in terms of role boundaries and capacities. IAPT practitioners already work to strict protocols and time parameters; introducing new elements to their information-giving role needs to be sensitively considered, and staff need to be equipped with relevant information and expertise before being given new duties.
This paper describes the risk factors associated with working during the pandemic. We have mapped recommendations for each problem using these qualitative findings including tailored training and better support for isolated team members and identified the required changes at several socio-ecological levels. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Providing higher-intensity unpaid care (higher care hours or care within the household) is associated with negative impacts on people's paid employment, mental health and well-being. We investigated the effects of providing care for 10 or more hours a week or within the household in interaction with people's socio-demographic characteristics. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
An opportunity but also a challenge for newly created integrated care systems (ICSs) is how to best engage with adult social care to deliver on ambitions to support the health, wellbeing and independence of their populations, addressing workforce challenges and designing integrated, person-centred services. It was for this reason that NHS England asked The King’s Fund to explore with adult social care providers their hopes and expectations for integrated care systems, their current level of engagement in ICSs and what could be done to improve involvement.
Overprescribing is a safety concern in care homes as approximately half of older care home residents are prescribed at least one medicine that is unnecessary or now harmful. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This paper presents findings of a mixed methods ethnographic study drawing on qualitative interviews and visual methods underpinned by social practice theory to explore the household food practices of older people receiving Meals on Wheels services.
The vast majority of older adults who are chronically ill rely on informal caregivers for support. Caregivers often require additional support to facilitate their role. Using existing research, this scoping review provides a comprehensive picture of what caregivers have indicated as priorities for support. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Older persons in Sweden are increasingly encouraged to continue living at home and, if necessary, be supported by home care services (HCS). This study examined associations between home care staff's perceptions of their psychosocial work environment and satisfaction with care among older people receiving HCS. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The Health and Care Act 2022 and concurrent reforms to the public health system have introduced a range of changes and some simplifications to the landscape of national bodies in the health and care system.
Here, we explain the core functions of the national bodies with the most significant role in setting policy for and shaping the operation of the health and care system. We also look at how these organisations are held accountable for carrying out those functions and the extent to which central government can direct them.
[Report] To explore how local authorities make improvements and measure success, and what type of support they use to make improvements, we conducted 27 interviews with those involved in improving adult social care in local authorities. We explored the adult social care improvement ‘stories’ in five local authorities and compared what we heard with established approaches and principles of quality improvement used in many sectors.
Opinion piece, but also bringing in statistical data. Looks at how social care struggles to compete with supermarkets on pay and benefits (staff discounts on essential shopping). Also compares to NHS healthcare support worker roles in terms of pay progression and development opportunities.
‘Single-handed care’ initiatives seek to identify whether all or part of a homecare package involving more than one care worker can be safely reduced to a single worker. The aim of this study was to identify, describe and explain current processes and practices for single-handed care initiatives and double-handed homecare reviews. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The aim of the present systematic review was to investigate cultural factors associated with burden in unpaid caregivers of older adults. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This paper presents the findings of a structured literature review conducted between January and March 2021 on delayed discharges of people with learning disabilities in long-stay hospital settings. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
It is important for social care staff to understand what a learning disability is so that they can identify people with learning disabilities and provide them with the support they need.
To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This paper reports the findings of a thematic narrative review of peer-reviewed articles exploring innovation in UK independent homecare services published between January 2009–August 2021. Our analysis of 15 papers reveals four broad innovation types: personalised funding, operational models, workforce development and assistive technology. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The purpose of this scoping review is to identify and synthesise what is already known about the quality of life of older carers and care-recipients, considered together, which we refer to as ‘dyadic QoL’; both in general, and with regard to the impact of community-based social care. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Care home residents with stroke have higher levels of disability and poorer access to health services than those living in their own homes. We undertook observations and semi-structured interviews (n = 28 participants) with managers, staff, residents who had experienced a stroke and their relatives in four homes in London, England, in 2018/2019. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of the content and effectiveness of empowerment-oriented interventions directed at informal caregivers of community-dwelling older adults. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of carers of people with dementia of South Asian origin, living in the UK. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Unnecessarily prolonged stays in hospitals can have negative impacts on patients and present avoidable costs to health and social care systems. This paper presents the qualitative findings of a multi-methods study of the social care causes of delayed transfers of care (DTOC) for older people in England. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
In this qualitative study, we explored views of social care professionals in England on supporting older carers, as well as the feasibility, potential benefits and challenges of applying a dyadic outcomes approach into policy and practice. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Despite evidence of high rates of diagnosable mental health difficulties in children in care, there remains ongoing debate around the appropriateness of traditional diagnoses and treatments. The aim of this study was to quantitatively explore whether mental health diagnosis and treatment decision-making differed when a young person was identified as being in care, specifically focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a trauma-specific mental health disorder with rates substantially higher in children in care versus their peers.
Policy guidance promotes supporting people to live in their own homes for as long as possible with support from homecare services. We aimed to examine risk and safety issues for people with dementia and their homecare workers and risk mitigation practices adopted by homecare workers to address identified risks. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
‘What matters to me’ is a five-category preference elicitation tool to assist clients and professionals in choosing long-term care. This study aimed to evaluate the use of and experiences with this tool. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This study investigates under what conditions older spouses receive personal care from their spouse. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Care home staff need evidence-based tools to help them assess residents’ mental capacity and provide decision-making support. The Mental Capacity Assessment Support Toolkit (MCAST) was designed to support multidisciplinary healthcare staff to prepare, complete and document legally compliant mental capacity assessments. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
The number of adults who self-neglect and thus fall under the aegis of local authority adult safeguarding procedures in England has increased substantially since the introduction of the Care Act 2014. This article examines how agencies put the MCA into practice in their work with people who self-neglect, and how they understand their own and others’ roles and responsibilities in so doing. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This systematic review aims to study and synthesise the best available evidence on the potential factors related to the willingness of older people to engage with long-term care services. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Assistive telecare systems (ATSs) have great potential to be beneficial for informal carers (ICs) providing long-term care to older people (OP). However, little is known about ATS acceptance among ICs. This scoping study aims to investigate various factors that influence the ICs' acceptance of ATSs over time in the pre- and post-implementation phases. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
This qualitative evidence synthesis aimed to explore the experiences of older people and their carers (formal and informal) towards a reablement model of community aged care to ensure services are considerate of older people's needs. To read the full article, choose “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
Supported living has been shown to improve functioning and social inclusion in people with severe and persistent mental health problems, reduce hospitalisation and provide secure accommodation in a population where housing needs are often unmet. Conversely, living in supported accommodation has been depicted by some as depersonalising, marginalising and an ordeal to survive. The present study sought to shed light on the experiences of residents in an enhanced supported living service in the United Kingdom. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
This study aimed to develop and evaluate a communication tool to guide transitional care for older patients. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Community environments have the potential to alleviate loneliness and social isolation as they offer opportunity for sociality and to expand personal social network connections. Implementing a social network intervention in community environments to connect people to who are at risk of loneliness or social isolation could help alleviate these concerns. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
The 2021 British Social Attitudes survey, carried out by NatCen Social Research, and published by The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust, found that in 2021 just 15 per cent of the public said they were satisfied with social care and 50 per cent said they were dissatisfied. This is the highest dissatisfaction rate of any of the health and care services asked about – general practice, A&E, inpatient, outpatient and dentistry, as well as social care.
Increasingly, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are fleeing the 67 countries that criminalize consensual same-sex intimate relationships, seeking asylum in countries such as the United States. Minority stress theory posits that compared with non-LGB refugees and asylum seekers (RAS), LGB RAS are likely to face persecution, rejection, and discrimination and have a higher risk of experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. This study assessed differences in sociodemographic characteristics, persecution experiences, and mental health outcomes among 959 RAS persecuted for same-sex behavior (pLGB RAS) who presented for care and social services at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. . To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Building more socially cohesive communities with less socioeconomic disadvantage benefits all members of society but particularly those most vulnerable to psychological distress, such as immigrants. These findings echo those of the 2016 Dame Louise Casey Review of social integration in the UK which highlighted that despite growing diversity, community cohesion was not universal throughout the country, with issues of social exclusion persisting for many ethnic minorities and white British working-class communities falling further behind (Casey,2016).
This study aimed to describe and analyse different aspects of health, functioning and social networks, and how they relate to formal and informal care in the home among older adults. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Suggestions of the existence of so-called ‘social care deserts’ in England in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the potential impact of geographical inequalities on the availability of residential, nursing and domiciliary care. In this paper, we draw attention to geographical modelling techniques that can be used to examine local trends in the supply of social care services in relation to potential demand. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
W. Schröer, and S. Sting. Handbuch Soziale Arbeit in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft. Grundlinien - Konzepte - Handlungsfleder – Methoden, Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt a. M., (2004)
K. Scheiwe. Erziehung und Bildung von Kindern als gemeinsames Projekt: zum Verhältnis familialer Erziehung und öffentlicher Kinderbetreuung., Schneider Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler, (2010a)
J. Krawietz, and W. Schröer. Die soziale Welt quer denken: Transnationalisierung und ihre Folgen für die Soziale Arbeit., Frank & Timme, Berlin, (2010)