SCIE Practice guide 11: The participation of adult service users, including older people, in developing social care
Practice - People isolated at home
- The dominance of meetings-based models of participation means that people who find it difficult or impossible to leave their homes are often excluded from participation.
- Others may prefer to be consulted in their own homes (Patmore, 2001). Service users in this position can be identified through local media, newsletters and service providers (O'Keefe & Hogg, 1999).
- They may then be supported through technological means, such as tele-conferencing, or through the help of volunteers or support workers meeting them in their home.
See Practice Examples for Exeter Senior Voice, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough, and RNIB.
- Some service users are reluctant to attend public meetings or venues in which different service user groups are present and there is an expectation that people will define who they are in terms of their experience as a user of social care services.
There are also things like if you have a hidden impairment
people don’t necessarily treat you as a service
user and then talk about your 'impairment
group’ in a very negative way and then you
can’t say you are a mental health service
user because you already know what they think of
mental health service users and everyone would
be embarrassed and you know what they really think,
whatever they then try and tell you. It can be
very isolating.
(Service user)
