| CODE | SWP3510 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Community Care and the Mixed Economy | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Social Policy and Social Work | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | In recent decades, a very important turn of social policy internationally has been that of community care, that is, caring for and supporting dependent people (mainly from among the elderly, persons with disability or with mental health problems) while they remain living at home, rather that resorting to the often more expensive and more intrusive care in institutions. Social, but also health care has shown a strong tendency to be provided by multiple providers, forming a mixed economy comprising government, for-profit and non-profit agencies, family, neighbours and civil society. Students of social policy, as possible administrators or planners of such services are, through this unit, taught about what these styles of care involve, both on the level of face-to-face micro provision, and on the meso and macro levels of departmental and country policy level provision. The special aspects of community care, and of services addressed to their main client groups, are considered as a way to prepare students for future related roles. Speakers from the field will also address students. Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims to familiarize students of social policy with the main goals and methods of community care provision. It also makes them aware of the main facts, policies, processes and critiques of the mixed economy of care, generally and more particularly as it is experienced and applied within community care. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate awareness and understanding of the needs of dependent people living at home, particularly older adults, persons with disability and persons with mental health problems; - Understand the main ways in which these needs can be met; - Demonstrate awareness and understanding of the philosophies and systems that underpin the provision of community care, as well as its basic values of holism, partnership with the service user, interdisciplinary intervention and needs-led service, etc.; - Show familiarity with developments in the provision of community care, especially since the 1960s, mainly in Malta and the UK, but also more internationally, in ways that give insight into good and not-so-good practice that could be applied at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels; - Possess and apply knowledge of how helping professionals such as social workers, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists exercise care and support, in a way that helps future managers to act appropriately and sensitively; - Demonstrate an appreciation of the contribution that case management can offer to the local and other contexts; - Show understanding of the way various mixes of government provision and provision from other sectors, whether for profit or non-profit, create an operating environment; - Appreciate the use of various sources and models of financing, applicable in community care; - Understand and help exercise the interlocking roles in practice of government, for profit and non-profit agencies whether as regulators or regulated, purchaser or provider. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Contribute to planning, service delivery and management in the field of community care; - Help develop, manage, evaluate and improve the provision of care for dependent people living at home, especially older adults, persons with disability and persons with mental health problems; - Show insight into the challenges that personnel of various categories and at various levels experience, in such a way as to participate in the sensitive management of human resources involved in the field; - Be able to perform within contractual relationships, either on the contractor or the contractee side, as tenderer or issuer of a tender for service when the purchaser and provider roles are split. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - Le Grand, Julian (2009) Choice and competition in publicly funded health care Health Economics, Policy and Law, 4 (4). 479-488 . - Le Grand, Julian (2007) The other invisible hand: delivering public services through choice and competition Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. - Wistow G, M Knapp, B Hardy and C Allen (1994). Social Care in a Mixed Economy, Open University Press. Each student is expected to make intensive use of a reader such as: - Means R, Richard S & Smith R 2008. Community Care. Policy and Practice .4th Edition.(previous edition also acceptable). Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan. - Lewis J & Glennerster H (1996). Implementing the New Community Care. Buckingham: Open University Press. - Bornat J, Pereira C, Pilgrim D & Williams F (1997; *1993 edition in Library). Community Care: A Reader. London: Macmillan/Open University. - Sharkey P. 2007. The essentials of community care. 2nd edition. Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Indep Online Learn, Indep Stud, Lecture & Tutorial | ||||||||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Miriam Agius Charles Pace (Co-ord.) |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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