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New book explores the transformation of residential care co-authored by Professor Randall Smith

1 July 2010

Residential Care Transformed
Residential care homes are an important resource for older people yet they remain stigmatised and under-valued. In a new book "Residential Care Transformed" co-authored by Professor Randall Smith from the School's Centre for Urban Studies and Julia Johnson and Sheena Rolph from the Open University, the authors revisit Peter Townsend's classic study of residential care in England and Wales, "The Last Refuge", published in 1962.  With the help of a hundred older volunteer researchers, and drawing on data deposited at the University of Essex, UK,  the book traces what happened to the 173 homes that Townsend visited. They also revisited 20 of the surviving local authority, voluntary and private homes so as to compare them then and now.

...The book is a fully worthy companion to Townsend's classic study and will become an indispensable text for anyone interested in how society treats some of its most vulnerable citizens.

Alan Walker, Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology, University of Sheffield, UK
Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book straddles the boundary between history and sociology and reviews: the policy context and the history of research into residential care for older people over the last 50 years; provides new insights into the continuing history of residential care for older people about what kinds of homes have survived and why; makes comparisons between particular homes today and in the past demonstrating not only substantial changes but also strong continuities; reveals persisting inequalities in the standard of care home provision in the early 2000s in England and Wales and discusses the ethical and practical challenges involved in designing a revisiting study, reusing archived data and in engaging older people as 'volunteer' researchers.

The book includes some previously unpublished photographs from the Peter Townsend Collection which when set beside those taken in the early 21st century illustrate not only continuity and change in residential care but also in visual representations of older people.

"Residential Care Transformed: Revisiting 'The Last Refuge'" is available from Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Further information:

JULIA JOHNSON is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Health and Social Care at The Open University, UK. She has published widely on the topics related to ageing and later life and was review editor of the journal Ageing& Society. Her most recent book is Understanding Health and Social Care (edited with Corinne DeSouza). 

SHEENA ROLPH is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Open University, UK. She has published widely in the social history of learning disability and the history of residential care for older people. Her background is in art history and her research interests include the history of visual images relating to her specialist fields.

RANDALL SMITH is Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK. He has co-authored books on community care and the development of policies for older people. Between 2003 and 2009, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the British Society of Gerontology and is a Trustee of Age Concern Bristol.