To buy the book now

It would be hard to find a more important time for the publication of People, Care and Work in the Home. These last months have brought to the forefront of all our lives the importance of the home and the people, work and care that happens within them.

The book, published this week with Routledge, brings together academic and professional expertise in these fields, first gathered at the 2017 4th International HRF Conference: “A Home, a place of growth, care and wellbeing.”

What was clear at the conference was that these vital things – growth and wellbeing  – do not just “happen.” For strong, healthy individuals, families and communities there needs to be attention paid and support given to the frontline of where these patterns begin – at home.

Professor Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem and Professor Antonio Argandoña, editors of People, Care and Work in the Home have worked with contributors to bring to wider attention this multidisciplinary approach to society’s key building blocks.

Sir Harry Burns, professor of Global Public Health at the University of Strathclyde, and former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, underlines the importance of home for life-long health and healthy relationships in his contribution to the publication:

“From the outside, a home is simply a building. It’s inside that the magic happens. If a home is a place where children feel safe and happy, they will learn they are loved and respected and, as a result, they are likely to grow up to love and respect others. They will grow in health and wellbeing and develop a sense of purpose, allowing them to make decisions as to the future direction of their lives. Children who experience a nurturing, safe upbringing are likely, as adults, to create a positive home environment for their own children and so, positive outcomes for families are handed on to the next generation.”

If those early experiences are not positive the results are less happy, less healthy for individuals and for society – examples of which are not hard to find.

This recent pandemic, the lockdown and enforced time at home together has given new energy to those determined to champion the unique and priceless role it plays in our lives. In the words of Professor Argandoña:

“The home grows with solidarity, sharing everything. And the most complete way of sharing is love, that is, to take care of others. That is what we learn at home throughout our lives, although in a different way at each stage of that life. In this period of confinement we have learned to live together, ignoring the deficiencies of others; to share, that is, to give and give ourselves.”

People, Care and Work in the Home is a very important articulation of that insight to inform both research and policy in how we value what is given and what is received at home.

Having someone with an intellectual disability or an autistic child at home during coronavirus is a real blessing and an invitation to spend our days more mindfully but creating a new shared rhythm may take families like mine a little longer.  Beyond Words, the charity I founded and chair, has been busy producing some wordless booklets which may help with ideas!

The BW method relies on the power of stories to help people understand and for people who understand pictures better than words, then that narrative has to be in pictures.

Truthful Stories in pictures empower people – Before lockdown, my son was very unwell with what could have been flu or Covid-19. He was scared, he didn’t understand about covering his cough or self-isolating. He didn’t understand the importance of drinking lots of fluids. We didn’t have an existing story about a virus, so we asked the artist of an existing book called Belonging to create a new episode involving its two much-loved characters – Kali and Stefan.

In Beating the Virus, Kali develops symptoms of Covid-19. NHS111 advises her to stay home and to drink lots of fluids. She rings Stefan who brings some essential supplies and models how to keep his distance. Kali recovers.

Beating the Virus has already been downloaded 2000 times across Europe- of course being wordless it’s not language dependent, although it does include advice for carers at the end.

But there is another more widespread challenge. How to explain the stay home, stay safe message.

My son challenged me- you can’t tell me to stay at home. I have to go to the bank, the shop, my cafe – I want to see my friends, and so on and of course, we want him to make his own choices, but those choices are not his to make just now.  We had a couple of bad days, but soon things settled into a new peaceful pattern of mainly good days.

We have pulled together a second wordless booklet called ‘Good days and bad days during Lockdown’ by collating short stories from existing books. The aim is to help think about how it feels to be isolated and frustrated and how to manage disappointment and lost opportunities- my camp has been cancelled; my birthday party is now online.  And more importantly to have fun thinking about other ways to live at the moment.

For my son this includes a virtual bookclub using zoom with the images being shared online just as we are today; a daily colouring session with a friend using facetime; an online dance class with dance syndrome and lots of WhatsApp calls to friends and family.

Both of the booklets can be downloaded free from www.booksbeyondwords.co.uk

We hope that readers won’t need our third booklet which is aimed at family carers facing death of a family member because of coronavirus either at home or in hospital.  This is illustrated but aimed at carers, not directly for people who struggle with words. But it does include links to our very truthful wordless stories about death and dying: When Mum Died, When Dad Died, When Somebody Dies and Am I Going to Die?

As you all know, we are organising our 5^th International Conference on Happiness and Homes which will be held in November at The Royal Society of Medicine in London. Happy Homes, Happy Society? The contribution of domestic life in a time of social changes, offers a great opportunity to explore the contribution of the home to the wellbeing and happiness of individuals at all stages of life and, by implication, to wider society.

We are delighted to announce that the participants for this meeting are now all confirmed.  A prestigious group of academics will be contributing to our event, as keynotes, academics in dialogue and as round tables experts.

 KEYNOTES & ACADEMICS IN DIALOGUE

ROUND TABLES 

Clicking on the relevant image will take you to their CV and more details.

Please note that the Proposal Submission Deadline of 30^th April is fast approaching. We have already received some very promising proposals from the UK and international academics. If you plan to contribute but have not yet sent your abstract, please send it  to research@homerenaissancefoundation.org