It is hard for those living in more private circumstances to appreciate just how public life in social housing can feel. Partly this is due to the nature of the flats. However, small, inadequately soundproofed flats are by no means unique to social housing: more significant is the fact that a social tenancy is so difficult to get. Demand so massively outstrips supply that if a young single person is given a flat, everyone knows there must be a reason for it. And the reason, if not quite public knowledge, is certainly an object of public interest, most particularly to the longer-term residents.
Feeding this interest is the highly visible nature of the various interventions. Police, bailiffs and ambulances can be obvious and regular visitors. As can social and support workers, at least to those in the know. Some tenants respond by abandoning any attempt at privacy. One mother who lived near to me used to call her kids from across the street. "No, you come here! I can't come out, can I; I got a fucking tag on!"
And then, of course, you recognise your own. You may recognise people personally, having seen them on the wards or in the waiting room. Or you may, as with my new neighbour, recognise a situation. The inevitable question is how to respond.
It's straightforward enough if you have reason to believe a neighbour is at serious risk. In that situation you have an obligation to act. But my current dilemma is more common and much more complex. In a sense, not responding is impossible; I cannot "unaware" myself of something I am aware of, walking on past is in itself a response. I've tried smiling, but even that felt intrusive, let alone knocking on the door and offering some curtains.
And it's not only my neighbour I'm thinking of. I have to protect my own boundaries. For professionals these come with the role and indeed enable it. Hours and a place of work should help to protect other times and places for things outside work. When you live next door to someone you must establish such boundaries yourself. This is something that I, like many people, struggle with. It may be 3am but if someone's in need, it's difficult to say no. If you know that support is available, this makes things much easier for everyone. But in the age of the "big society", professional support is being cut dramatically. Situations such as this are going to become ever more common. I do hope someone's considered the implications.
Full Article HERE
I'm finding it harder to remain specifically focused on unemployment and welfare issues at the moment, given that there's only so many times you can repeat the same point and more importantly there are other related issues that also need to be talked about.
This particular article kind of struck a chord with me today, and I feel it really is an issue worth talking about.
Disability is something I've touched on, especially Mental Disability. My wife & I are lucky to have each other in our lives, we always have that one person to fall back on, to lean on, to help take the pressure off sometimes, but this isn't always the case for many people with a disability, and it wasn't always the case with myself nor my wife.
Mental Illness, and other invisible illnesses, is notoriously hard to spot or comprehend by those that aren't surrounded by it on a daily basis. I remember a friend of mine at University quite correctly pointing out one day that many people claim to be depressed, when they are in fact just having a bad day, and this greatly confused the matter of whether or not someone really was suffering from depression.
The high number of people out there that don't really understand depression, or other forms of mental illness, or other types of disability, muddy up the water and confuse the definitions of these problems. In the long run, when combined with the often negative portrayal in the media, this means that the public has an often disbelieving attitude towards these issues and will ignore them or pass them off as nothing important.
So now here we are, the year 2012, Cameron's Big Society is slowly taking shape, and apparently that Big Society is one that likes to cut the few lifelines that people like my wife, or myself, or our numerous friends and relatives with similar issues, have available to them.
A Big Society that ignores the people that need the help, ignores the groups, companies, and schemes that could really help the country, and repeatedly backs the people, companies, and schemes that only benefit a minor percentage of the population.
Have a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment