A while back I wrote a post and Michael commented on it. I realised there was much more knowledge and first-hand experience behind the comment so I worte and asked if he would like to write a few posts. Eventually we got round to connecting and ran through 3 video interviews.
Michael is a social worker and speaks to the issues of social care. His context is the UK so the content is shaped into there. He outlines where we are today in this video – how we moved from the monasteries as the centre of care to our current scenario.
Use the comment system to communicate directly to Michael and if there is more traction he is willing to engage deeper. I, coming at this with a lack of knowledge, found the historical development intersesting.
You are doing well with the interviews Martin – they open up connections with people who are very inspiring and interesting (to put it mildly 🙂 )
This is a really intresting conversation and great to hear this came from bouncing off a previous article. What article was that?
Great bit of background in this .. I wonder what the history is in the USA and if that reflects on the USA’s current welfare care systems.
I feel like as a society we can easily use the mentality of deserving and undeserving poor still now.!
Lucy,just wanted to thank you for your final comment.Exactly what I was thinking when I heard the podcast.Have we really come as far as we’d like to believe? My daughter lives and works in US and sees this on a daily basis.I have experienced this in my own lifeSo sad that Michael has to address some of this in his work as he obviously is passionate about he does.I realise the states have a different welfare system,but what you have flagged up is a mindset and that raises a lot of questions and conversations.
PS just to add a big thank you for initiating discussion.
Hi Elly and Lucy.
I’m afraid that I can’t speak to the history of social care in the US, except to say that it has developed within a similar cultural/religious/political/philosophical framework.
It is very true to say that the discourse of the deserving and undeserving still perseveres in our western society. Its is perhaps an easy line of argument for politicians to use when taking a position that government services should have their resources reduced. Something like “why should the state help people who wont help themselves” is something that people find instinctively persuasive, if they don’t think about it too much. Also argument that refute this are often more complex and harder to state in terms that are easily memorable. This is part of what has made “Neoliberalism” the consensus political philosophy in the UK and the US so successful over the last 40 years.