It's personal: Lived Experiences of Adult Social Care and Social Work Practice in a Policy Context of Personalisation

This study focuses on what can be learnt from lived experiences of adult social care and social work practice in England in a policy context of personalisation. The concept of personalisation is increasingly a key driving force in adult social care policy with significant implications for social work practice. In this study, psychosocial and participatory methods are purposefully combined, with lived experience and coproduction placed at the centre of a unique qualitative methodology. A reflective learning group with people with lived experience is a core feature of the research design. The findings reveal some important learning for social workers. Firstly, a risk is identified that social workers working within a personalisation framework focused on independence and strengths might unconsciously collude with psychic defence mechanisms. Like those defences first identified by Menzies-Lyth (1960) they include individual and social defences against anxiety associated with unconscious fear and hatred of depende