Dundee

The increasing focus on the involvement of people who use health and social care services and their carers in developing services and in social work education has the potential to bring significant change. This book examines the challenges in enabling people who are `experts by experience' to participate in an agenda which is largely dominated by 'top-down' managerial practices. Several themes run through the book.

In this chapter the author recounts her personal experiences of being a carer for her son and her interaction with social services in Scotland. The author's son is now over 30 years old and is on the autistic spectrum, has obsessive compulsive disorder and a learning disability. She recounts the early difficulties she had in dealing with health and educational professionals as she tried to achieve the best possible care for her son. Many of the professionals she encountered were unable to appreciate the importance of integrating her son into as many normal daily activities as possible.