Modern times:an ethnographic study on the quality of life of people with a high support need in a Flemish residential facility

This ethnographic study shows the impact of the care system on clients' and staff's life experiences, with the clear distance between these two groups as one of the core issues. Together with a dominant care approach and a well established but subtile system of control, it makes them function in systems that are characterized by an oppressing care culture. Learned helplessness prevents both groups of acting upon quality of life outcomes. The idea of supporting a life of good quality through merely improving these traditional care systems should therefore be considered with caution, and real alternatives should be considered to open this barrier of the oppressing care culture.