What does wellbeing mean to you?

 

What does well-being mean to you?

I was in some Care Act training this morning run by The Mental Capacity Cat and was reminded about the first principle of the Care Act. It is the well-being principle.

We talk about well-being a lot in Social Work but it is really hard to define because it means different things to different people. It is made up of so many parts of somebodies life and experiences. What one person feels is important to their well-being might not be something that other people even do. For example working out may be a major factor for one person but other people do not do it at all because it isn't for them.

It is not as simple as self care it also includes engaging with the local community and activities. This is what can become difficult in our assessments because what we see as important is not what other people need. The way that somebody lives may be their choice and would not work for us but it does for them. It is where you cannot let your own viewpoints and perspectives of what a life should be impact how you work with someone just because they live differently.

When working with someone it feels like we focus a lot on their current situation which makes sense but also we should be looking at how we can provide options now that will prevent, delay or reduce future needs. I feel like that doesn't happen as much as it should but also when I reflect on some on my cases I feel like I may have done this without thinking about it because it is such a big part of being person centred and holistic.

We think about is this going to have a significant impact on their well-being but what does that mean? Is it something simple like being able to go to a local café which most of us would take for granted or are we needing to think of the bigger picture and look into care at home or in a residential setting. Can we provide this or are there non statutory services that could support the person with it instead. These are questions that we ask on a daily basis in the team I work in but one of the difficulties can be is there a service that covers what you need? One thing I have noticed is missing services for people at the in between age. By that I mean there are services for younger people with additional needs and for older people but very little in between. If you have someone who is middle aged but has high level needs where do you put them?

It can have a major impact on someone's mental health being somewhere they feel that they do not belong because there is not another option for them. Unfortunately we do not have a magic wand so we can't magically create what is missing to fill the gaps. Does this make people feel respected and allow them to build their own self esteem or does it make it worse for them because what they need does not exist.

Some of the experiences that people have with us can have the biggest impact on their overall mental health and well-being which is difficult. Everyone is entitled to an assessment regardless of their finances but I definitely have come across a lot of situations where people are told to come back when they drop below the threshold. This causes more issues in the long run because the family are left to make decisions without the required information and then later down the line we are picking up the piece and starting from 3 steps backwards.

So I repeat the question at the beginning of this blog, What does well-being mean to you?