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Defining Community Care: realities and myths
Author(s) -
Higgins Joan
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9515.1989.tb00492.x
Subject(s) - institution , argument (complex analysis) , mythology , care in the community , sociology , public relations , nursing , medicine , political science , law , health care , social science , philosophy , theology
This article looks critically at the concept of community care and argues that it is unhelpful and redundant. It makes three main points: first, that many care settings have elements of institutional and so‐called community care and that there is no clear dichotomy between the two. Second, it is argued that the real distinction is not between the institution and the community but is between the institution and home. Community care is not provided by anonymous, altruistic others but comes from specific individuals (usually women) in domiciliary settings. The concept and definition of “home” are briefly discussed and it is suggested that most care is delivered either in a home , from home or at home. The third argument is that careful individual assessment is required to ensure that dependent people are not offered housing or residential solutions when what they need (and want) is care and services.