Older people’s volunteering and ‘place’

For his first blog, Robin Miller, Senior Fellow at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham examines a Canadian study on place and older people’s volunteering and considers the implications for third sector policy.

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Shirkers and scroungers: Is there a link between mental health discrimination and welfare reform?

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In her first Social Care Elf blog, Sarah Carr looks at an evaluation of the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign and discovers some new findings on discrimination against those living with mental health problems.

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Is self-directed support delivering personal budgets?

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In his very first blog for the Social Care Elf, Martin Stevens of King’s College London and chair of the Social Services Research Group, takes a critical look at some of the research and debate around self-directed support and personal budgets in adult social care.

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Quality of life and mental health: What questions should we ask?

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In his debut blog, Martin Webber, Reader in Social Work at the University of York, asks how we can meaningfully measure quality of life with and for people living with mental health problems.

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How do health and social care leaders respond to user involvement?

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Service user researcher and consultant, Gerry Bennison presents his first Social Care Elf blog. In it he critically discusses the findings of a study looking at how leaders in health and social care are responding to service user involvement.

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Carers policy and practice: What about ‘former carers’?

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In her debut blog, Mary Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care at the Open University, examines a piece of qualitative research exploring the experiences of former carers and discusses what it might mean for policy and practice.

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Advance care planning for people with advanced dementia

It's important that practitioners don't let dementia get in the way of other health problems, such as depression or anxiety. 

Clarissa Giebel, Researcher and PhD student at the University of Manchester, writes her debut Elf blog on a qualitative study about the experiences of advance care planning amongst family caregivers of people with advanced dementia.

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What does ‘adult protection’ mean to social workers?

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In her first Social Care Elf blog, Jo Moriarty, Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, examines a study looking into the meanings attached to adult protection by social work practitioners.

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What do rights and choice in social care mean for people with learning disabilities?

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In his debut Social Care Elf blog, Mike Clark, of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, London School for Economics, reflects on a conceptual study looking at the human rights of people with learning disabilities in an era of ‘choice’.

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Caries Prevention: review suggests that education training and fairer payments would increase prevention delivered by dentists

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Seven qualitative studies and 41 surveys were included in this qualitative metasummary of factors that increase or decrease dentists delivery of caries prevention. While the surveys in particular, are of questionable quality some commonality emerges that further education and training coupled with a fairer pay scheme would be a reasonable approach to change the balance in favor of the provision of dental caries preventive measures by dentists

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