‽istis reclaims well-being (weekending
August 28th 2021)
This week, having had several direct and indirect, personal and professional close encounters with the nation’s health service and with social care provided by a not-for-profit religious foundation charity, ‽istis is left with various ponderings:
‽ that perhaps
these might be some of the most important words and characteristics: compassion,
dignity, respect, best interests, inclusion – alongside adequately-resourced
and equipped, training, competence, quality assured as much as quantity
‽
that while some may possibly genuinely believe that the operation of market
forces is critical to efficiency, effectiveness, value-for-money, excellence,
attracting the best (even if that means taking from others), it may only
be a slight stretch of that economic ideology to get to a point where profit is
bled from an organisation into the pockets of those who may just not actually need
any more
‽ that these are essential workers and that a
very high proportion are probably undervalued, underpaid and the work they do
in a ‘whole system’ may be seriously underestimated (cleaning as primary prevention
of infection in a hospital, for example)
‽ that 'free at the point of delivery'; needs-led, not means-led; no-one safe unless all are safe... are perhaps very precious principles to help 'level up'
‽ that
health and social care, physical and psychological/ mental health services,
neo-natal and end-of-life care, prevention and treatment, housing and
poverty-reduction, tackling discrimination and exclusion, education and the
economy, the taxation system and responding urgently to the clear and present
danger of the climate crisis - may all be linked; that a ‘medical’ model and a ‘social’
model may be twin lenses producing a clearer vision
‽ that how
a society recognises the potential influence of many factors, experiences and circumstances –
exogenous and endogenous, nature and nurture, chance and good fortune (including of birth), ones that we can control and ones
that we cannot, that make us ill, that disable…
may be a mark of its sophistication and maturity, along with the way it
cares for the most vulnerable
‽ that a
systemic and holistic focus that fully has health, development and well-being
of all individuals, families, groups and communities at its shared and common core may just perhaps be a uniting, connecting and central, foundational focus
for policy, planning, funding and measuring not just inputs and outputs but
outcomes too – of and for everyone, individually and collectively
And so ‽istis, not for the first time,
wonders whether this is all just too naïve, but holds on to the idea that if we
can imagine it, it could indeed be so; that just perhaps, possibly, may be
things could be different…
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to
this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’
and respectful comment and dialogue welcome…
