Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:18:14.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Asset-based approaches, older people and social care: an analysis and critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

MARY DALY  and
SUE WESTWOOD
MARY DALY*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, UK.
SUE WESTWOOD
Affiliation:
Keele Law School, Keele University, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Mary Daly, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, UK E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Asset-based thinking is increasingly prevalent in health policy and is to be found also in discourses on social care. This article explores and critiques the applicability of asset-based approaches to social care for older people, using Carol Bacchi's analytical framework to consider developments in the United Kingdom especially. The problem construction, assumptions and suggested solutions underpinning an asset-based approach are considered in turn. The paper draws two major conclusions. The first is that, while it has potential application to the field, the key assumptions and objectives of the asset-based approach do not hold well for social care and therefore adopting the approach carries risks. The paper concludes, secondly, that an asset-based approach is ‘over-promised’ in the sense of being insufficiently theorised and lacking empirical evidence. A number of suggestions are made for greater critical interrogation, improved empirical evidence and closer scrutiny of the policy ‘solutions’ associated with assets-related thinking.

Keywords

asset-based approaches to healthsocial careolder people, social policy, gender and social care
Type
Forum Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 38 , Issue 6 , June 2018 , pp. 1087 - 1099
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antonovsky, A. 1979. Health, Stress and Coping. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Bacchi, C. 2009 Analysing Policy: What's the Problem Represented to Be? Pearson Australia, Frenchs Forest, Australia.Google Scholar
Buck, D. and Gregory, S. 2013. Improving the Public's Health: A Resource for Local Authorities. The King's Fund, London.Google Scholar
Daly, M. and Silver, H. 2008. Social exclusion and social capital: a comparison and critique. Theory and Society, 37, 6, 537–66.Google Scholar
de São José, J., Barros, R., Samitca, S. and Teixeira, A. 2016. Older persons’ experiences and perspectives of receiving social care: a systematic review of the qualitative literature. Health and Social Care in the Community, 24, 1, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duffy, S. 2007. Care management and self-directed support. Journal of Integrated Care, 15, 5, 3–14.Google Scholar
Duffy, S., Waters, J. and Glasby, J. 2010. Personalisation and adult social care: future options for reform of public services. Policy & Politics, 38, 4, 493–508.Google Scholar
Ellis, K., Davis, A. and Rummery, K. 1999. Needs assessment, street-level bureaucracy and the new community care. Social Policy & Administration, 33, 3, 262–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feder Kittay, E. 1999. Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality and Dependency. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Foot, J. and Hopkins, T. 2010. A Glass Half-full: How an Asset Approach Can Improve Community Health and Well-being. Great Britain Improvement and Development Agency, London.Google Scholar
Friedli, L. 2013. ‘What we've tried, hasn't worked’: the politics of assets based public health. Critical Public Health, 23, 2, 131–45.Google Scholar
Glasby, J., Miller, R. and Lynch, J. 2013. ‘Turning the welfare state upside down?’ Developing a new adult social care offer. Policy Paper 15, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.Google Scholar
Gray, M. 2011. Back to basics: a critique of the strengths perspective in social work. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 92, 1, 5–11.Google Scholar
Hopkins, T. and Rippon, S. 2015. Head, Hands and Heart: Asset-based Approaches in Health Care. The Health Foundation, London.Google Scholar
Humphries, R., Thorlby, R., Holder, H., Hall, P. and Charles, A. 2016. Social Care for Older People: Home Truths. The King's Fund and Nuffield Trust, London.Google Scholar
Knapp, M., Bauer, A., Perkins, M. and Snell, T. 2013. Building community capital in social care: is there an economic case? Community Development Journal, 48, 2, 313–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kretzmann, J. and McKnight, J. 1993. Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Towards Building and Mobilising a Community's Assets. Institute for Policy Research, Evanston, Illinois.Google Scholar
McLean, J. and McNeice, V. 2012. Assets in Action: Illustrating Asset Based Approaches for Health Improvement. Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Glasgow, UK.Google Scholar
Miller, R. and Whitehead, C. 2015. Inside Out and Upside Down: Community Based Approaches to Social Care Prevention in a Time of Austerity. Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.Google Scholar
Morgan, A. and Ziglio, E. 2007. Revitalising the evidence base for public health: an assets model. Promotion & Education, 14, 2 supplement, 17–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Colloquium 2012. Co-production for Health: A New Model for a Radically New World: Building New Approaches to Delivery to Achieve Better Health Outcomes at the Local Level. Solutions for Public Health, Oxford.Google Scholar
Needham, C. 2011. Personalisation: from story-line to practice. Social Policy & Administration, 45, 1, 54–68.Google Scholar
Needham, C. 2013. Personalisation: from day centres to community hubs. Critical Social Policy, 34, 1, 90–108.Google Scholar
Nyqvist, F., Forsman, A. K., Giuntoli, G. and Cattan, M. 2013. Social capital as a resource for mental well-being in older people: a systematic review. Aging & Mental Health, 17, 4, 394–410.Google Scholar
Pickard, L. 2015. A growing care gap? The supply of unpaid care for older people by their adult children in England to 2032. Ageing & Society, 35, 1, 96–123.Google Scholar
Tronto, J. 1994. Moral Boundaries A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Vlachantoni, A., Shaw, R. J., Evandrou, M. and Falkingham, J. 2015. The determinants of receiving social care in later life in England. Ageing & Society, 35, 2, 321–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westwood, S. and Daly, M. 2016. Social Care and Older People in Home and Community Contexts: A Review of Existing Research and Evidence. Green Templeton College, Oxford.Google Scholar