What do you understand by the word 'care'?

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
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Liverpool
Hi everyone

I am here with my student 'hat' on (I'd rather have the gown but think that's rather a long way off!)

I have recently started an Open University degree in Health and Social Care. Part of my present study involves asking as many people as possible

'What do you understand by the word 'care'?'
Please answer in one word or one phrase
.

I would be so grateful to anyone who could help me with this as I'm finding getting back into studying hard going! :eek:

Thanks in advance. :)
 

dmc

Registered User
Mar 13, 2006
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i would think of "care" as being "help" or "to look after"
hope i interprepted the question right:confused:
good luck with the studies!!xx
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
3,452
0
Liverpool
dmc said:
i would think of "care" as being "help" or "to look after"
hope i interprepted the question right:confused:
good luck with the studies!!xx

Thanks for you answer Donna. It's a great answer and there really is no right or wrong answer and I hope that is not putting people off from answering! I am just looking for people's instinctive answer to the question so I can compile as many replies as possible.

I think I will need all the luck I can get :eek:
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
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It's difficult to think of just one word or phrase. I was thinking that, when we looked after my grannie and other elderly relations, no-one used the word "care" then, I suppose "looked after" was more usual.

Of course at that time there weren't any attendance allowances or carers from Social Services.

Lila
 

daughter

Registered User
Mar 16, 2005
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"Loving Support" - that's what I understand by the word 'care' - but I also offer some to you! Good luck with the study :)
 

Amy

Registered User
Jan 4, 2006
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Providing physical and emotional support as required to meet the needs of another?
Helen
 

Áine

Registered User
Feb 22, 2006
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sort of north east ish
noelphobic said:
'What do you understand by the word 'care'?'
Please answer in one word or one phrase
.

That's an interesting one. It's one of those words where I think I know what it means until someone asks me to define it.

I remember when dad first started being ill, before he had a dementia diagnosis, I used to go on a general carers chatroom. More than once I was stopped in my tracks by meeting someone new and them asking me "do you care?" My immediate response tends to see "care" as meaning "concern" etc ........ do you care about the enviroment? do you care about the number of people who are homeless? "am I bovvered?" etc Took me quite a while to get used to the question being about provision of care in the sense of attempting to meet someone's (?basic) needs.

I suppose as well as tending to someone's needs, care could be about facilitating a situation in which someone else tended to those needs.

So it could be a mental/emotional concern or (?and) a practical meeting of someone's needs, or facilitating someone else meeting those needs. Or, a fourth, quite different meaning of care could be when it's used in concepts such as "care in the community" "children in care" ..... as a kind of euphemism for "neglect"

Can I answer the question in one word or phrase? ............. can I heck. Word limits have always been my biggest challenge in uni assignments ;)
 

Tender Face

Account Closed
Mar 14, 2006
5,379
0
NW England
noelphobic said:
'What do you understand by the word 'care'?'
Please answer in one word or one phrase
.

As a professional: Taking responsibility to meet needs

As someone needing care: Meeting needs (social/physical/psychological/ emotional etc)

As (emotionally attached) carer: ... Foregoing/relegating or even fulfilling own personal needs (social/emotional etc) through attending to another's or others' needs..... understanding bonding and attachment issues which fuel voluntarily giving 'care' and associated 'care' needs for self...

(Well, it never said the phrase had to be short?????!!!!!:D )

Best of luck in this, Noelphobic - so admire you for what you're doing..... sure that was no help at all .....:eek:

Loadsaluv, Karen, x