Book review
| Pages | 45-46 |
| Published date | 01 September 2003 |
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200300026 |
| Author | Sue Bower,Tracey Warrington |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 5 Issue 3 • September 2003 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited 45
These three booklets provide a welcome contribution to thinking
about the lives of older people living in care homes. They explore
how systems of care remove choice and control from older people
living in care homes. They focus on two aspects of life – risk-
taking and sexuality.
Residents Taking Risks: Minimising the Use of Restraint – A
Guide for Care Homes is intended as a practice guide. It provides
thought-provoking, illustrative summaries on the meaning of
restraint, capacity and consent. Guidance on the principles of
care, in relation to risk-taking, restraint, and staff support are clear
and helpful. The different text layouts, such as the inclusion of
flowcharts and a risk-assessment form, may help readers to work
through complex situations. However, at times the order was
confusing, and a contents page might have improved clarity.
This booklet encourages readers to think about ‘challenging
behaviour’ as attempts to communicate. As a guide to practice, it
would have been useful to expand on this by including a section
on the importance of the meaning of behaviour and
communication – questioning whose behaviour is challenging
and why.
Showing Restraint: Challenging the Use of Restraint in Care
Homes is the most comprehensive of the three booklets, exploring
in more detail the issues introduced in Residents Taking Risks. It is
a follow up to Counsel and Care’s first publication on the use of
restraint in UK care homes (Counsel and Care, 1992). In the
intervening decade the structure and provision of community
care and the levels of need of care home residents have changed
dramatically. Clarke and Bright suggest that there has also been a
change in the use and nature of restraint in care homes.
This booklet uses scenarios to provide helpful explorations of
what is meant by restraint, and to suggest reasons why restraint is
used by care home staff. It also provides a brief account of the
legal context and the wider context of care provision and policy.
Residents Taking Risks:
Minimising the Use of
Restraint – A Guide for
Care Homes
Counsel and Care
London: Counsel and Care
(2001)
12pp
Showing Restraint:
Challenging the Use of
Restraint in Care Homes
Alison Clarke and Les Bright
London: Counsel and Care
(2002)
28pp
£7.50
ISBN 1 898092 34 6
Sex and Relationships:
A Guide for Care Homes
Alison Clarke, Les Bright
and Chris Greenwood
London: Counsel and Care
(2002)
16pp
£5
ISBN 1 898092 35 4
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