Transforming care: problems and possible solutions

The purpose of this paper is to raise issues about Transforming Care (TC) and discuss possible solutions.

Reflections and commentary on Transforming Care following Painter et al.’s article on correlates for the risk of admission to specialist hospitals.

Concerns are raised about the initial assumptions of TC, in particular the composition of the inpatient group and impact of the existing legal framework on reducing this population. The lack of cohesion between Care and Treatment Reviews and Care Programme Approach reviews is noted, and combining meetings is suggested.

The relevance of Wolfensberger’s social devaluation analysis is explored and O’Brien’s Personal Futures Planning is recommended as a potential way of drawing these currently disparate approaches together around the individual client.