Dear Dr Bob,
I am feeling very isolated at work. All our meetings are about co-creating better health and social care futures with our clients – who are very poor, very stressed and very unhealthy.
I know that my senior colleagues have the best of intentions but when they stress about the airmiles attached to their asparagus, I feel they don't really see the world that both our clients, and sadly, I live in.
I'm sure we'd all make better health choices if we had more money, more time and more agency. AG, senior carer and foodbank user.
Dear AG,
Your colleagues are right in that enabling people to take control over their own lives is crucial for better health outcomes. People who manage stress levels, eat well, exercise regularly and neither eat nor drink too much are likely to live longer, better lives without the need for massive intervention. That's the theory – and, for those with adequate time, money and healthy genes, the reality.
But it's not everyone. It feels to me that in some senior health and social care circles we lament the fact that not everyone is middle class.
It's well known that there are structural and historical roots to poverty and isolation.
No amount of co-creation will overcome those immediate barriers, and you'll know better than anyone that some of these social habits are the product of having little money and even less control.
Don't despair about co-creation. It's a lot better than imposition.
Or worse, no engagement at all and all the evidence points to prevention being better than most kinds of cures, where it's possible.
But if your colleagues are not seeing the reality of this world, then you can help them understand it.
You are not alone. I am sure that many people in social care use foodbanks – many nurses and some doctors do.
Low wages limit choices; no wages remove most altogether. Don't be intimidated by middle-class posturing; it betrays a kind of insecurity.
Speak up - your clients will thank you for it.
