Why and When Institutions Do Not Work — Sans Everything Revisited

Abstract

The focus of the previous chapter on the structural reasons for the failure of residential institutions leading to the neglect of personal identity and how they can be realistically mitigated addressed the abuse of selfhood. In this chapter, Mervyn Eastman draws on the literature of dysfunction — the litany of residential care failure — to identify what the managers of residential institutions can and should be doing to minimise the risk of all forms of abuse. As he points out, the facts of abuse within residential care have been disclosed regularly over 30 years — what is puzzling is why such abuse still occurs despite the acknowledged changes in residential institutions over this period. This chapter suggests that, whilst there has been an undeniable catalogue of abuse in residential care, its roots lie not in the nature of residential institutions as such but in the much larger ‘institutions’ — institutionalised ageism in society and the power structure of welfare organisations — within which they exist and are managed.