From ‘Us and Them’ to ‘Me and You’: Fostering Inclusion in Daily Care Practice in Terms of Equal Partnership

Abstract

Inclusion is an important topic in today’s society, yet it is surrounded by confusion and is difficult to attain in reality. This paper aims to critically appraise the concept of inclusion, to reflect on the essence of what inclusion in society is about, and to translate this essence into user involvement in small-scale, long-term care practices for people with disabilities. Most professionals in care services find user involvement important, and user involvement has shifted expectations and broadened the roles of clients in health care, but real partnerships remain difficult to achieve. In this paper, we try to understand why this is the case and what can be done about it. To this end, we reflect on the mechanisms underlying the difficulties in realising partnerships in everyday care practices and portray two long-term care practices in which the professionals and care users work in partnership. Finally, we draw conclusions about the factors underlying these practices in the context of inclusion.