What is 'relational care' and how can it improve the day-to-day experience of carers and those they care for? What are its implications for relationships between staff and service users in care settings? And how does the concept of relational care enable us to re-imagine the role of place and space in the experience of care? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode with Mary Larkin and Manik Deepak-Gopinath who recently completed a research project on the value and practice of relational care with older people.

Mary is Professor of Care, Carers and Caring at The Open University in the UK, where her research has focused on carers and caring and adult social care. She is the co-author, most recently of Family Carers and Caring, published in 2023 by Emerald. Manik is a Lecturer in Ageing, also at The Open University, and is a critical gerontologist with interests in the intersection of ageing, place and wellbeing, and in the intimate and family ties of older adults.

We cover the following topics in this episode:

Mary's background and research interests (02:35)

Manik's background and research interests (06:00)

Defining relational care (08:40)

The research project (12:45)

The relational care toolkit (19:20)

The role of place and space in relational care (21:40)

Relationships in relational care (27:15)

Spreading the word about relational care (32:40)

Relevance of relational care to other care contexts (36:35)

What's next for Mary? (38:35)

What's next for Manik? (39:30)

Mary's and Manik's key ideas and influences (41:12)

Links

Mary's Open University profile

Manik's Open University profile

Link to the research report

The Open University’s Open Learn platform

CAREN (Carer Research and Knowledge Exchange Network)

Book on relational care by Jenny Kartupelis, consultant on the research project

Care and Capitalism, book by Kathleen Lynch recommended by Manik

Wikipedia page for Doreen Massey, a key influence for Manik