Disability, Citizenship and Community Care: A Case for Welfare Rights? by Kirstein Rummery

Author:Kirstein Rummery [Rummery, Kirstein]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781351731782
Google: NvhKDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-02-06T04:41:08+00:00

She wanted help looking after her children, but the only help available would be for her children to be taken into care, which she did not want. Mrs Hargreaves was clear that she felt the practitioner’s status as a social worker added to her problems:

Mrs H: I think the problem is with social workers...I don’t like social workers, to be quite honest, nobody does, do they, because it is a stigma which goes back years ago...I think it sticks with you. Those at [the hostel] are not social workers, they’re health people, volunteers...but they helped. I don’t like social workers as such because I think they’re nosy, and you’ve got to answer to them...the difference between being nosy, and dropping in and seeing if you’re alright, it’s different.... when I was in [the hostel] it was great because I got support. It’s all to do with support.

Mrs Hargreaves felt that the hostel workers offered her help in a pragmatic way that did not create a hierarchy of competency. They were not gatekeeping access to resources and had no reason to have knowledge about services, procedures and eligibility criteria that put them in a more powerful position than her. Her view of her practitioner, on the other hand, was that she did not see Mrs Hargreaves as a competent citizen, but as a person demanding unavailable services who should really be going out and helping others as a way of taking her mind off her own problems. Mrs Hargreaves’ relationship to her practitioner could be constituted within the assessment process as one characterised by the ‘citizen-the-worker’ approach discussed previously. In contrast, her relationship to the hostel workers, who were also welfare state workers, was perceived by her as being much more equal - the workers were her ‘co-citizens’ rather than being considered more ‘competent’ members of society than herself.

The practitioners’ power to decide what constitutes a valid need made some respondents feel that their judgement was unvalued. Mrs Todd lived with her husband, who had recently had a stroke, and her son, who had mental health problems. She was in hospital following a heart attack when she discussed with her practitioner the option of getting some extra help around the house. She had no success, and when asked if she would change anything about social services replied:

Mrs T: I would certainly ask why we’re not allowed this help when it is essential...I would approach them and say ‘Well, why can’t I have the essential things done that I need in the house. I would push it...I think...it’s essential that these jobs should be done. Anybody who’s really disabled they need someone to perhaps clean the house up, do the washing and the shopping. I think those are the three essential things that need to be done.

But Mrs Todd’s practitioner did not agree with her that these things were ‘essential’ (in part probably because housework was a service no longer offered by the in-house provider in the area). Mrs Todd also felt

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