British society needs a fundamental rethink about the way it approaches caring if it is to prevent abuse of elderly and disabled people, according to researchers at the University of Brighton. They are working on a new ethic of care which emphasises quality of care and wellbeing and will speak about their research at a forthcoming conference on 13 and 14 September. The research follows a number of high-profile cases of abuse in care homes.
Care has been devalued in current policy, according to the researchers. Not only are care workers poorly paid and often poorly supported, an emphasis on 'choice' for care home residents is often at the expense of how to build good caring relationships. This conference will explore what it means to value care, not only in services to older people, but in other contexts such as services for people who may be homeless or abused, and in relationships within families and amongst children living together in residential care.
The researchers have been developing work on an 'ethic of care', designed to promote good care as a value in services and in the way we live together to enable well-being.
They are hosting an international conference Critical care: advancing an ethic of care in theory and practice at the university's Falmer campus on 13 and 14 September. Contributors include world leading academics on care ethics, including Professor Joan Tronto from the USA and Professor Ingunn Moser from Norway.
The conference will also introduce a timely book on care in everyday settings: 'Care in everyday life: An ethic of care in practice', by Marian Barnes, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Brighton. Experts acknowledge this book as making a major contribution to current debates on care as both a value and practice.
The book explores concerns about abuse in care settings and personalised care, through to the meaning of care within personal relationships and our relationships with the places in which we live. Professor Barnes argues for care as an essential value in private lives and public policies.
Her research work has included looking at ways service users have sought to shape health and social care services, and different forms of participative policy making. Her recent work has reflected on these practices and experiences from the perspective of care ethics.
Professor Barnes will be giving a plenary talk at the conference entitled Struggling, for, with and against care.
Professor Tronto, from the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota and considered the world's leading academic on care ethics, feminist theory, and political science, will discuss 'democracy and caring responsibilities in a global context'. Ingunn Moser, Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Department of Nursing and Health Care from Diakonhjemmet University College in Oslo, will also deliver a plenary speech on 'Telecare: new values ideals and modes of caring'.
Staff in the University of Brighton's School of Applied Social Science will give workshop papers based on current and recent research on dance and dementia; older people and well-being; social care for people on Community Treatment Orders; nursing and technology, and on care and information.
Contributors are expected from countries throughout Europe and from around the world including South Africa, Canada and New Zealand.
Find out more about the Critical care conference.
