Humansolutions Bulletin - January 18th 2023

A key text for challenging ageism and promoting dignified practice. Dr Sue Thompson presents invaluable guidance on how to take care of older people in positive empowering ways that avoid common ageist assumptions and practices. This is an essential guide to good practice in eldercare. Available from https://neilthompson.info/shop/ or Amazon

When people act or speak in discriminatory ways, bully people or behave disrespectfully towards others, it can be very tempting to ‘have a go’ at them, to give them a piece of your mind. While that reaction is quite understandable, it can be highly problematic. This is because there is a danger that the person who is behaving irresponsibly will see you as the unreasonable one, to see you as the person who is behaving inappropriately. This can just make a difficult situation worse. ‘Elegant’ challenging, by contrast, refers to challenging inappropriate behaviour tactfully and sensitively, so that you are giving the other person no ammunition to fire back at you. Skilfully pointing out why what somebody has said or…

When processing the death of a loved one, children may have trouble sleeping, have an increase in anxiety or begin to feel indifferent about their lives. Being able to talk and ask questions will help them express their feelings and worries. Child Bereavement UK supports children and young people up to the age of 25 who are bereaved of anybody important to them. “Our underlying advice, regardless of age, is to give opportunities for children and young people to talk and to ask questions about death and to provide them with honest answers” explains Clare. “It's really important to normalise grief. Grief is a natural and normal response to the death of somebody important to you, no matter who they…

The Moonshot project was launched at the start of this year to get a better understanding of what a future society should look and feel like. This project aimed to give us tangible goals to aim for, not just for our charity but for the whole of society including, other organisations, campaigners and governments.​ Click here to read more

School and work push us to avoid real dreams. Dreamers are dangerous, impatient and unwilling to tolerate the status quo. Existing systems would prefer we simply fit in. The dreams we need to teach are the dreams of self-reliance and generosity. The only way for us to move forward is to encourage and amplify the work of people who are willing to learn, to see and to commit to making things better. It turns out that reading and writing are the cornerstones of this practice, now more than ever. These are the two skills most likely to produce exponential results. Click here to read more

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