Pandemic: challenges in care and recovery

Abstract

Our experiences through the pandemic have to be viewed by reflecting on the year and a half that has been, but also what we have learnt through this experience, with a view to taking forward. The article intends to approach this topic, from a health and social care perspective coming from the author working in The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, a healthcare organisation, but also importantly, from a relational perspective in how we interact organisationally, as a health & social care system that is part of a wider society in this city, across the UK and the wider world.

The article not only comments on systemic inequalities that have become stark in the pandemic, but also identifies corrosive and deliberate counter narratives to the themes of care and courage in this period. It concludes that the pre-existing silos of separation between the privileged and dispossessed have prevented survival and wellbeing in the wider society.

The process of recovering from the pandemic is not just about the restoration of physical wellbeing but also the creation of healthier conditions in society that actively vitiate against the scourge of everyday sadism.

Keywords:

• pandemic
• healthcare
• care
• cruelty
• future

Disclosure statement

The main themes in the article were previously presented by the author at a Trust event.