The move to personalisation and personal budgets under recent UK Government was an attempt to shift control of care to individual choices. That is a strengths view, but at the same time, those budgets were being reduced in line with Government austerity measures, leading to less than ideal outcomes in many cases.
This recently available chapter, Strengths-based Social Work with Older People: A UK Perspective paints a picture of the current views on strengths of older persons in the UK. It considers policy and practice perspectives as well as strengths-based principles for work with older people. The latter were developed by researchers at Brunel University London. A section on the voices of older people explores narrative approaches to strengths building and another section looks at promising and innovative social care programmes in the UK that employ strengths-based approaches.
This chapter is in a book called Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work, produced by the University of Kansas, home of the strengths perspective where Dennis Saleebey, generally regarded as the founder, taught prior to his death. Professor Nelson-Becker from Brunel University London contributed chapters on older adult strengths to three editions of his ground-breaking book.
Reported by:
Professor Holly Nelson-Becker
+44 (0)1895 267935
Holly.Nelson-becker@brunel.ac.uk