ABSTRACT
I have ordered the stories, not chronologically, but in the same way as the book is structured, exploring first the feelings, thoughts and actions of individual workers engaged with assisting an individual resident. I then consider the building of relationships, the worker as part of a team, the resident as part of a group, questions of leadership and management, the way a whole establishment functions. The scenes broaden further to illustrate the wider political and organisational encompassments that so crucially affect residential care, ostensibly sustaining, but all too often hindering, the accomplishment of the primary task.
