A crisis of caring?

Alka Sehgal Cuthbert asks whether there is a crisis of compassion and caring in health and social care. She welcomes some of the recommendations in the interim report from the Commission on Improving Dignity in Care for Older People but thinks there is a bigger issue. The managerial response of the inspection regime is part of the problem not the solution. By encouraging a ‘performance’ culture that can say nothing about the intangibles of care it undermines a professional commitment to a caring ethos. To the extent that society has an ‘elder abuse’ problem is it because of a lack of vetting of carers, or is it driven by damaging institutional cultures? Will new improved national quality standards make any difference?