Relational care - with Mary Larkin and Manik Deepak Gopinath
Episode 1 of Careful Thinking
(photo via https://wels.open.ac.uk)
For the first episode of my ‘Careful Thinking’ podcast, I’m pleased to welcome as my guests two colleagues from the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care at The Open University.
Mary Larkin is Professor of Care, Carers and Caring and Manik Deepak Gopinath is a Lecturer in Ageing at the OU. Mary and Manik have been working together most recently on a research project exploring the value and practice of relational care with older people. I was keen to find out more about the project and to discuss the concept of relational care and its implications for improving the practice and experience of care more widely.
Mary and Manik begin by talking about their academic backgrounds and interests, and how these led them to an interest in relational care. They then offer a definition of relational care, before moving on to discuss the research study and its outputs, which include a relational care toolkit for use by practitioners and providers of care.
Mary LarkinMary defined relational care in the following terms:
Relational care is an approach that builds on and is in some ways a natural progression from person-centred care. It takes it to a new level, in that it shifts the emphasis from the individual alone to the person as part of a network of supportive and mutual relationships…It represents a move from a one-way flow of care towards mutuality in caring relationships, whereby people aren’t solely givers and receivers, and it prioritises the creation of an environment that people can feel truly at home in.
Manik Deepak GopinathManik emphasised the importance of space and place in relational care, and suggested that care providers who seek to adopt a relational approach should ask themselves the following questions:
Are people able to maintain a sense of place [when they move into the care setting]…are you able to maintain continuities of relationships more widely…and can you also maintain the continuity of objects and the kind of daily lives and routines that you had?...Does design and the layout of facilities encourage that, and are we designing to maintain people’s need for privacy, for interaction, for connecting with nature, and in ways that recognise interdependence, but also that they might do some things independently?
I was struck by the way in which relational care, as described by Mary and Manik, exhibits a profound respect for the whole person, while at the same time emphasising the importance of relationships for the wellbeing of the individual. I also appreciated the emphasis on mutuality in relationships between carers and cared for, so that the agency of the latter is respected and they are not reduced to being simply receivers of care. This approach also has a positive impact on staff, whose wellbeing also seems to be at the heart of relationship-centred care.
Do listen to the whole episode and feel free to share your thoughts on it in the comments.
You can download a transcript of the episode here:
Footnote
Since recording the episode, Mary Larkin has given her inaugural professorial lecture, on ‘Family Carers: Beyond Visibility’. You can view it here.