This book is for all carers, inside the family, outside it, paid, or not.
Caring for our relatives and friends when they are in need is a challenge that the vast majority of us will rise to at some point in our lives (Department of Health 2008).
Carers literally blossom when they are offered non-jargonistic, practical training and support.
‘I expect that’s common sense, isn’t it?'
This innocent comment on my job as a social care teacher always makes me smile. 'Training and supporting the care force’ is not common sense – it’s not rocket science either. Social carers generally are undervalued by society, so often undervalue themselves.
So this book is about helping carers to recognise and value the skills they already possess, and develop these - from this comes an unbelievable amount of support, as well as making all kinds of everyday experiences more interesting and enjoyable.
This book therefore helps carers to
- recognise and value the skills they already possess
- develop these skills through applying theory to everyday situations
- understand the complex social welfare background of today, since knowledge is power
- be equipped to work with people who have very different backgrounds and experience from their own
- deal with jargon!
A relevant anecdote:
A woman who had had a high powered job was once applying for employment after having had children. She felt de-skilled and lacking in confidence. Then she sat down and made a list, rather like the one above, of the skills she had used in running a home and caring for children. She spoke of these in the interview. She got the job!
Not common sense, not rocket science…training and support!
How I got here I was brought up in Northumberland, England, and lived in Oxford, Southwell, and London, before moving to France in 2003. My husband, Michael, is an inventor of educational and social games. He also writes educational material with me and others. We have one daughter, Cath, who has illustrated one of my books. My career took me through teaching, social work and practice teaching. As an educator I found it sad that students only read enough to complete their academic assignments, so became passionate about making social work theories come alive for them. I began writing in the mid-nineties, when I was commissioned to write some training workbooks with Nigel Horner, an established author and inspired social work teacher. This whetted my appetite for writing training materials in a soundly theory based, friendly and accessible style. So in 1997 4M Publications was born, and still lives on as Kindred Games and Books www.kindredgamesandbooks.co.uk My particular interests are in social care methods, groupwork, communication skills, and teamwork. During my practice years I met so many wonderful staff members who were undervalued both by themselves and others: ‘I’m only a care assistant’. I found that their lives could be enriched by a small amount of productive training, if this were delivered in a non-jargonistic way, emphasizing the skills they already possessed, instead of the theories they [...]
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