A BBC Radio 3 series examines the conflicts of having a caring career in an indifferent world where services are easily dispensed withTwenty seven-year-faded Melanie is an strange care worker for several reasons; she loves her job and sees it as her career and is unusually well qualified – she did three years of medical school. She is a live-in care worker in Nottingham for 25-year-faded Charlotte,who has muscular dystrophy. Between them they paint a vivid picture of the complex work involved in care and are just two of many people I have interviewed in England for a series on the crisis of care being broadcast this week on BBC Radio 3. Charlotte is on 40 daily medications to manage her symptoms and there are frequent emergency situations requiring a peaceful head and swift action. The emotional demands are equally complicated, requiring a combination of “confidence and humility”, and explains Melanie. They live together for long periods and have to manage a fragile balance between dependence and privacy.“There is a constant shifting between empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) on the one hand and the detachment required to be effective on the other, says Melanie. “It’s very skilled work and yet the majority of people recruited to do it are the least employable in the labour market.” They are both campaigning with community organising charity, Citizens UK, and for a charter of minimum standards for social care.
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Source: theguardian.com