ABOUT THIS BLOG SITE

In this blog site, I’m working to join the dots between LOCAL CARE PRACTICES and the BIG PICTURE (the social structures of society and institutions).

First, I’m interested in what makes care ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in particular situations, with the aim of identifying good care practices and ensuring these are better recognised and valued. I focus on how formal healthcare provision intersects with the everyday care done by people in homes and other places.

Second, I’m interested in how care practices are shaped within the big picture (the social structures of society and institutions). In order to improve care, solutions to problems should focus on healthcare (and other) policies, systems and processes— not only individual patient and/or practitioner behaviour change.

I use social science to join the dots between good/bad care and the knowledge, systems and processes involved. Social scientists talk to people (e.g. citizens, patients, healthcare practitioners) about their experiences, and they study what happens in practice based on observation and interviews. My work maps people’s activities— those of policymakers, managers, practitioners, and patients— and how they intersect.

It is important to make the hard work involved in care more visible— from the activities that patients have to do to manage their health at home, to the backstage activities undertaken by administrators coordinating health services. Improving care requires careful attention to what actually happens— including what works, for whom, and how— and the policies, systems and processes that may need to be addressed.

This blog site is a space for working out loud in order to develop my own thinking, get input from others, and explore socially-useful and creative collaborations. It’s a work-in-progress, developed as part of my post-doctoral fellowship from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.