The increase in numbers of single people has been described as one of the greatest social phenomena of western society. Most women will spend periods of their lives alone, without a committed partner relationship. Yet there is still a degree of social stigma attached to this status. Single women are a crucial group for study in relation to perceived changes in family life and relationships. This book provides a new understanding of what is often taken-for-granted - female single identity. In an examination of extracts from her interviews with women aged 30 to 60 years and living alone, Jill Reynolds explores how women deal with this potentially stigmatized identity. She focuses on identity and self-representation through consideration of discourse and the conversational moves made by the participants. Her analysis highlights that the culturally available and familiar resources for understanding singleness are highly polarized. Single women weave their way through the extreme contrasts of a denigrated or an empowered identity. Thus, while most participants give very positive accounts, they also pay attention to widespread social expectations that success in life involves a long-term committed relationship. This book makes an important contribution to the understanding of the lives of single women and represents a challenge to the considerable literature on gender and family life which has inadequately theorized singleness. It will be of great interest to academics and students in social psychology, sociology, social work and social policy. It will also be of particular interest to students of gender studies, qualitative research, narrative studies, conversation analysis and discourse analysis.

This Reader includes material relevant to everyone involved in developing new relationships in health and social care. Alongside articles on social care as traditionally conceived, it offers articles from a wide variety of settings, including those in health and education. It brings together classic management texts and material with a management focus, providing a stimulating range of perspectives on the manager's role. In the management of something as complex as care, this must involve:
* listening to service users
* maintaining professional values
* enabling participation
* facilitating learning.
The Managing Care Reader reflects these imperatives as it focuses in on the experience of being in the front line. In four parts, it looks at how managers experience what they do, their managerial responsibilities, the key professional issues, and the importance of the organisational environment. It offers a rich resource for all those undertaking management courses or moving into frontline management roles in the new world of social care.

Managing Care in Practice helps managers to identify the knowledge and build the skills for managing people and other resources required for effective care provision. It addresses the practical dilemmas of managing in care settings by developing the model of practice-led management across a range of common activities. It provides ideas and models of what can work in practice from relevant theories, practice examples and the lived experience of social care managers. Including contributions from leading academics, researchers, managers and practitioners, the text is informed by consultations with service users and managers.

This core text demonstrates that the diverse and complex environments of management in social care require responsive and active engagement by the manager who wishes to maximise the constraints for everyday practice.

Contents:
Part One: Managers in the Frontline 1. Days in the Life Managers' Diaries 2. Mental Health Service Users as Managers 3. Involving Service Users in Management: Citizenship, Access and Support 4. Consultation: Plan of Action or Management Exercise? 5. Reflections on Team and Management Consultation 6. Working With and Being Managed by the Larger Organisation 7. Managing Unpaid Workers 8. Whistleblowing: Public Concern at Work 9. Managing Loss in Care Homes 10. Managers Talk 11. What Do We Want form Social Care Managers? Aspirations and Realities 12. Messages for Mangers: The Dilemmas of Means-Testing Part Two: Managing to Care 13. The Quest for Quality: Reflecting on the Modernising Agenda 14. Participatory Management in a Public Child Welfare Agency: A Key to Effective Change 15. Remember My Messages: The Experiences and Views of 2000 Children in Public Care in the UK 16. Child Poverty, Opportunities and Quality of Life 17. Community Care and Independence: Self-Sufficiency or Empowerment 18. Virtues and Values 19. We Mustn't Judge People But': Staff Dilemmas in Dealing with Racial Harassment Amongst Hospice Service Users 20. The Contribution of Research Findings to Practice Change 21. Towards Ecological Understanding of Occupational Stress Part Three: Managing in Changing Contexts 22. The Last Years of the Workhouse, 1930-1965 23. Doing the Right Thing? Managerialism and Social Welfare 24. Whither Welfare Professionalism? 25. Professionals as Managers Across the Public Sector 26. Supervising Professional Work under New Public Management: Evidence from an 'Invisible Trade' 27. In Pursuit of Inter-Agency Collaboration in the Public Sector: What is the Contribution of Theory and Research? 28. The Environment of Collaborative Care 29. Contributing as a Manager 30. Identifying and Implementing Pathways for Organizational Change - Using the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families as a Case Example 31. Social Work Management - A Systems Case Study Part Four: Managing for a Learning and Developing Organisation 32. Extract from 'Handling the Wicked Issues' 33. Managing Social Anxieties in Public Sector Organisations 34. The Managers' Job: Folklore and Fact 35. The Role of Leadership in the Modernization and Improvement of Public Services 36. The Supervision Partnership: A Whole Greater than the Sum of its Parts 37. Child Protection and the Media: Lessons for the Last Three Decades 38 An Evaluation of the Use of Information Technology in Child Care Services and its Implications for the Education and Training of Social Workers 39. Becoming a Learning Organisation: A Social Work Example

This is an exciting collection of writings by people who have experienced mental distress. It includes accounts of psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy and alternative treatments; life in mental institutions and moves into the community; self-help methods and work to improve mental health services. Moving, sometimes funny and often dramatic, the pieces are written by some of the key activists in the mental health survivors' movement, as well as by people best known as writers and poets and others who, for a period of time, have been caught up with mental distress and have something original to say.

Bringing together key issues in the provision and use of caring services, this volume is an invaluable training resource for health and social work practitioners. Roles and relationships are central themes: their complexity is stressed, as is their relevance to a better understanding of practice. The book's first three sections explore: the distinctions between health and welfare occupations, and informal helping roles; different approaches for practitioners to develop sensitivity to diverse experiences and to challenge unfairly discriminatory responses, attitudes and stereotyped assumptions; and the potential for user empowerment, given the imbalance in power between workers and users. These areas provide practitioners with sources for reflection in the final section. This unique collection encompasses both personal accounts and important current debates. It blends research with practice, and experience with academic insight. Throughout, readers are encouraged to make links across occupational divides and to challenge traditional assumptions. The volume is a Course Reader for the Open University course Roles and Relationships: Perspectives on Practice K663.