disABLED: What's behind a symbol?

individual

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

	NY State

Well done NY excellent MOVE!

(and hope to visit next year)

My source: James Moore, Clash of Symbols, The Independent 20 June 2014, p.35.
 
Image source from upper right:
http://in-abled.com/blog/2014/04/would-martin-luther-king-jr-care-about-disabilities/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability

6Cs Live! Story of the Month - Competition

Dear Peter,

We wanted to let you know about our new and exciting Story of the Month competition, in partnership with Nursing Times online.

This is your chance to really shout about the great work that you or your team is doing that underpins the values of the 6Cs – and what’s more, if you win you will be featured in Nursing Times online and 6Cs Live! Communications Hub.

So please take the time to fill in the short entry form on the 6Cs! Live Communication Hub – it’s not too long and time consuming we promise. 

Click here to find out more and access all the information you need.

Each month the entries will be reviewed by four judges, Matthew Hodson (COPD Nurse Consultant at the Homerton University Hospital, London), Sam Sherrington (Head of Nursing and Midwifery Strategy at NHS England), Jenni Middleton (editor of Nursing Times) and Matt King who is a lawyer, professional speaker, charity campaigner and 6Cs Live! Patient Champion.

The deadline for August entries is Friday 2^nd August so you’ve still got a chance to be our first winner of ‘Story of the Month’.

We look forward to hearing from you and good luck!

If you have any questions please email us.

6Cs Live! Team

Don't forget to make your 6Cs Live! pledge: www.6cs.england.nhs.uk

A sentence in a word - precarity - and a bad spell of 'whether'

In the past couple of months I've acquired three books to review. One of them is:

Philosophical And Theoretical Perspectives For Advanced Nursing Practic, Cody.

I'm pleased to say that over half the book now has extra notes (in pencil). Within the text and my reflections there are a great many potential posts. In chapter 18 though Doane and Varcoe write:

Subsequently, there has been little discussion about what is required to develop and enact that sensitivity and/or the knowledge, capacities, and skills required for ethical and responsive nursing relationships within the complexities of current health-care milieus. For example, as social inequalities deepen and neoliberal ideologies hold individuals responsible for their own health and well-being regardless of how poverty, disability, remote geographical locations, or other inequalities determine health, notions of obligation, responsibility, accountability, and efficiency are as vital to nursing relationships as are notions of compassion, responsiveness, trust and respect. Thus, nurses require a broader understanding of relationships and their significance to ethical nursing practice. p.204.

The sentence in (my) italics can be summed up in one word - a recently discovered concept for me - that of: precarity.

Here the definition on Wikipedia (c/o the above link):

Precarity is a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. Specifically, it is applied to the condition of intermittent or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the precariat.

Nursing is bound to be affected by the socio-economic environment. Caution is needed as the weather impacts, puts pressure on nursing's values.

Doane, G.H., Varcoa, C. (2013). Relational Practice and Nursing Obligations. In Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives for Advanced Nursing Practice (5th ed.), by W. K. Cody (Ed.). (Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

h2cm at 7th Annual Social Work Action Network Conference (SWAN)

The final programme is still to be confirmed, but I'll be presenting Hodges' model as a workshop next month at the 7th Annual Social Work Action Network Conference (SWAN). This will be hosted by Liverpool Hope University on 30 and 31 March 2012. This is a 40 minute train journey for me - a nice change.

As the website states: There will be two sessions of the conference made available to people to present their own research or conduct workshops. We are keen to facilitate alternative styles of presentation and would encourage people to consider group presentations, dramas, art-based workshops, social pedagogical based presentations as well, of course, as more traditional research presentations.

For several decades I have worked with many Social Workers: sitting across the desk at a community mental health project; as team members; doing joint home and residential care visits; being chased for assessment reports for 'Panel'. It will be very interesting to take in the activistic fervour at the conference. The other aspect of social work I am aware of is the relentless re-organisation they face - in common with health.

I also relish the opportunity to see how Hodges' model is received. A presentation and workshop will be prepared. Is h2cm the generic, multidisciplinary and universally applicable conceptual framework that I believe it to be?