The newly published book Relational Caring and Presence Theory in Health Care and Social Work: A Care-Ethical Perspective addresses a deep and globally felt dissatisfaction, among citizens in general but also among professionals. In healthcare, the social domain, in education, in the domain of housing, but also in psychiatry, youth care, and, for example, public administration, things have too often gone off course. As a result, there is a growing gap between the regime of competent professionals and managers, on the one hand, and the lifeworld of patients, clients, pupils, and residents with their needs, concerns, and longings, on the other. And also a gap between the institutional logic of organisations and their administration and quality systems, on the one hand, and the everyday practice and practical wisdom of front-line professionals, on the other. In these interrelated gaps, disconnected competences, bureaucracy, aloofness, mismatches, and distrust are proliferating. The relentless improvements since the 1980s hardly repair these deficits because they are producing more of the same. People, both as citizens and as professionals, hardly feel seen. Their distrust toward fellow citizens, their dissatisfaction with their work and their receptivity to populism are growing.
The book elaborates the thesis that no form of care, help, or support can do without this relational core, with the risk that seekers of help feel abandoned. It is precisely this experience of not being included that fuels discontent worldwide. And not being allowed to practise relational caring is conducive to satisfaction fatigue and burnout of professionals. The elaboration of these themes as presence (theory and approach), is done in close alignment with the political interpretation of ethics of care, in this case with a strong empirical basis and inductive conceptualization. The intended practices are rooted in good patient observation and interpretation. Although most of the qualitative research it relies on is conducted in the Netherlands, the book is international in scope and relevance.