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Introduction

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Carers, Care Homes and the British Media

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Abstract

The introduction explores the rationale for this book: to situate the voices of care workers at the centre of research on British care homes. It argues that bringing together media and ageing studies perspectives can challenge representations of care work and care homes. It explores the approach to research design and positions the combination of multiple qualitative methods as an innovative approach to media, ageing and care home studies. The chapter outlines the structure of the book and concludes by highlighting that the way carers and care homes are thought about and represented must urgently evolve if we are to ensure a better quality of care for older people in care homes in Britain and to provide better support for those who ‘do’ care.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Debates on what constitutes ‘old’ or ‘older’ are complex and ongoing in ageing studies. Gullette (2004), for example, argues we are less aged by chronology than we are by culture, and scholars in health and disability studies suggest we can be ‘aged by disability’ (cf. Lamb 2015). In this book these non-chronological understandings of ageing are important to the accounts of current and former carers and the way they see themselves represented in the media.

  2. 2.

    According to the National Institute for Health Research in the research project ENRICH, the 416,000 older people living in care homes in Britain account for 4% of the population aged 65 years and over, rising to 16% of those aged 85 or older.

  3. 3.

    Led by Camilla Cavendish, the Independent Review into Healthcare Assistants and Support Workers in the NHS and social care settings was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care in 2013. In the wake of the Francis Inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust which took place between 2005 and 2009, the Cavendish Review makes a number of recommendations around the training and support of health care workers who perform care in hospitals, care homes, and care recipients’ own homes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Hannah Grist

  2. Centre for Women, Ageing and Media, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK

    Ros Jennings

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  1. Hannah Grist
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Correspondence to Hannah Grist .

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Grist, H., Jennings, R. (2020). Introduction. In: Carers, Care Homes and the British Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35768-9_1

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