Introduction This article outlines Fraser’s ( 2017 , 2019 ) model of what she has termed ‘progressive neoliberalism’. This term captures the way in which neoliberal political discourse has co-opted terms from radical social movements. This process has meant that terms such as ‘choice’ and ‘empowerment’ have been used in very specific ways within neoliberal discourse to buttress individualism rather than to challenge structural inequalities. This article uses the development of mental health policies, particularly deinstitutionalisation, as a case study to
, 2007 ; Clear, 2009 ; Alexander, 2012 ). These developments in the penal system have taken place during a period when mental health institutions have closed. This chapter will explore the relationship between deinstitutionalisation and the increase in the use of imprisonment. The chapter begins with a consideration of the problem of how we define ‘mentally disordered offenders’. There is then a brief outline of the Penrose Hypothesis ( Penrose, 1939 ; 1943 ), which sought to explain the links between the use of imprisonment and institutionalised psychiatric care
27 TWO Deinstitutionalisation and the development of community care ‘Community care’ is a term that has become a short hand for a range of policies. These policies have been introduced in a range of areas – adult and older people’s services and services for people with learning disabilities. The term is most closely associated with the mental health field. It came to be a pejorative one that was most closely associated with the failings in mental health services in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Cummins, 2013). One of the key themes of this book is that
This book’s striking message is that palliative care does not deliver on its aims to value people who are dying and make death and dying a natural part of life.
This book draws from wider social science perspectives and critically and specifically applies these perspectives to palliative care and its dominant medical model. Applying Social Role Valorisation, the author argues for the de-institutionalisation of palliative care and the development of an alternative framework to the approaches found in hospices, palliative care units and community-based palliative care services. He offers a new conceptualisation of death and loss that refines and expands modern understandings in a way that also resonates with traditional religious views concerning death.
Wide-ranging recommendations advise fundamental change in the concept of palliative care, the way support and services are organised and the day to day practice of palliative care.
Rethinking palliative care will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners in palliative care as well as those in disability, social policy, sociology, social work, religion, thanatology, nursing and other health related fields.
Police officers deal with mental illness-related incidents on an almost daily basis. Ian Cummins explores how factors such as deinstitutionalisation, community care failings and, more recently, welfare retrenchment policies have led to this situation. He then considers how police officers should be supported by community mental health agencies to make confident and correct decisions, and to ensure that the individuals they encounter receive support from the most appropriate services.
Of interest to police researchers and students of criminology and the social sciences, the book examines police officers’ views on mental health work and includes a chapter by a service user.
This critical interdisciplinary study charts the modern history of mental health services, reflects upon the evolution of care in communities, and considers the most effective policies and practices for the future.
Starting with the development of community care in the 1960s, Cummins explores the political, economic, and bureaucratic factors behind the changes and crises in mental health social care, returning to those roots to identify progressive principles that can pave a sustainable pathway forward.
This is a groundbreaking contribution to debates about the role, values, and future of community care, and is vital reading for students, teachers, and researchers in the field of social work and mental health.
With contributions from distinguished authors in 14 countries across 5 continents, this book provides a unique transnational perspective on intellectual disability in the twentieth century. Each chapter outlines different policies and practices, and details real-life accounts from those living with intellectual disabilities to illustrate their impact of policies and practices on these people and their families.
Bringing together accounts of how intellectual disability was viewed, managed and experienced in countries across the globe, the book examines the origins and nature of contemporary attitudes, policy and practice and sheds light on the challenges of implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD).
First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics, this updated volume explores policy failures and the valuable opportunities for learning that they offer.
Policy successes and failures offer important lessons for public officials, but often they do not learn from these experiences. The studies in this volume investigate this broken link. The book defines policy learning and failure and organises the main studies in these fields along the key dimensions of processes, products and analytical levels. Drawing together a range of experts in the field, the volume sketches a research agenda linking policy scholars with policy practice.
Taking a critical and radical approach, this book calls for a return to mental health social work that has personal relationships and an emotional connection between workers and those experiencing distress at its core.
The optimism that underpinned the development of community care policies has dissipated to be replaced by a form of bleak managerialism. Neoliberalism has added stress to services already under great pressure and created a danger that we could revert to institutional forms of care.
This much-needed book argues that the original progressive values of community care policies need to be rediscovered, updated and reinvigorated to provide a basis for a mental health social work that returns to fundamental notions of dignity and citizenship.
This is the first book to address the issue of ageing after a long life with disability. It breaks new ground through its particular life course perspective, examining what it means to age with a physical or mental disability and what the implications are of ‘becoming old’ for people who have had extensive disabilities for many years. These people may have had to leave the labour market early, and the book looks at available care resources, both formal and informal. Ageing with disability challenges set ideas about successful ageing, as well as some of those about disabilities. The life course approach that is used unfolds important insights about the impact of multiple disabilities over time and on the phases of life. The book highlights the meaning of care in unexplored contexts, such as where ageing parents are caregivers or regarding mutual care in disabled couples. These are areas of knowledge which have, to date, been totally neglected.
