Principles of Support in Health and Social Care Practice
How principles of support are applied to ensure that individuals are cared for in health and social care practice
Healthcare is a professional area of practice which aims at improving the health and social well- being of individuals faced with physical, psychological, and social challenges. It calls for the practitioners to be extra careful when dealing with people who are in need of the care because the goal is to help them regain their health and well-being. There are various ways of applying the principles of support to ensure that individuals are cared for in health and social care practice (Moonie, Bates & Spencer-Perkins 2004).
One way is through according the individuals the respect they deserve. Even though the individuals may be faced with health and social problems, that does not mean they are not human beings and therefore the need to treat them with dignity. In the case of the ABC home, the elderly clients in the home are not accorded the respect they deserve because of the allegations that they are beaten or neglected by the healthcare providers at the home. The mistreatment shows a lack of good understanding of the principle of respect of clients and the need of treating them with dignity (Moonie 2000)..
The procedure for protecting clients, patients, and colleagues from harm
In healthcare institutions, there are various forms of potential harm to clients, patients, and colleagues. Examples include psychological harm resulting from failure to safeguard confidentiality, physical, emotional, and sexual harm. Patients in particular need to be assured of their confidentiality because it makes them have confidence in the practitioner which helps in the healing process. In order to safeguard confidentiality, practitioners must ensure that the consultation room has privacy. They also need to obtain the consent of the clients when they need to share clients’ confidential details with others. However, the details must only be shared for purposes of treatment and not for any other purposes (Clarke, Sachs & Ford-Sumner 2000).
In regard to psychical, sexual, and emotional harm, practitioners must put in place an elaborate infrastructure to ensure that clients are not subjected to any of these harms. There is need to have qualified, competent, and professional staff to handle the clients. The staff and practitioners must sign a professional code of conduct and always abide by it. In the provided scenario, there is evidence of harm to clients where it is argued that clients had unexplained bruises. Such evidence is an indication of a very bad practice especially when the victims are elderly people. It shows that there is a serious need to undertake serious measures to sanction the staff. They may be sanctioned positively through training, sensitisation, and monitoring or negatively through suspension or sacking in extreme cases (Stretch 2005).
Benefit of following a person-centred approach with users of health and social care services
As mentioned earlier, the goal of health and social care services is to help the users of the services regain their health and social well-being. It is good to underscore the fact that users of the services are different in terms of background, education, age, religion, and socioeconomic status. Even though the users of the services may use the same service, it does not mean that their plight can be generalised. Something else to consider is the fact that the users of the services are social beings just like other people. As a result, there is need to treat them with respect. The service providers need to build a good rapport with the users through the person- centred approach.
The benefit of using the person- centred approach is that it enables the service providers to understand the service users and empathise with them. The approach increases the uptake of the services because the users are free to interact with the service providers. It also fastens the healing process because the service users have more confidence in the services which in turn increases their self esteem (Nzira & Williams 2009).
The person- centred approach also enables the service users to choose the type of services they need. The reason is that people have different preferences and it is good to allow them determine their destiny by allowing them to choose for themselves the type of services or interventions which they think is best for them. However, the service providers must provide adequate information regarding the type of services and the implications of choosing a particular service.
Ethical dilemmas and conflict that may arise when providing care, support and protection to users of health and social care services
Apart from respecting the decisions of clients and protecting them from harm, making efforts to secure their well-being under the principle of beneficence is necessary. The rules of the principle include not doing harm and looking for possible benefits to minimise possible harm. The two rules are part and parcel of medical ethics which require care givers to do good to clients according to the care givers’ judgement and justification to seek benefits despite the risks.
The principle applies to individuals, society, and social care providers and it raises an ethical dilemma when dealing with clients with low risk due to lack of direct benefit prospects to the clients (Dickenson, Huxtable & Parker 2010). The principle of justice ensures fairness in distribution of the benefits and costs of services among the stakeholders. An injustice occurs when some benefit is withdrawn or persons with diminished autonomy are denied protection. However, some of these rules have been found wanting when applied in diverse situations because of conflict amongst them and difficulties in their interpretation. The ethical principles are also not generalised enough to form a strong ground for formulating and criticising specific rules (Chatbum 2009).
The impact of policy, legislation, regulation, codes of practice and standards on organisation
Implementation of policies, legislation, regulations and codes of practice in health and social care
Since the field of health and social care is a professional area of practice, it has policies, legislation, and codes of conduct which guide the practitioners and service providers. The policies and regulations are aimed at guiding the practitioners in their work with the overall objective of ensuring that they apply professionalism in what they do (Peoples & Bailey 2011). In regard to the scenario provided at ABC care home, there is need to implement some policies and regulations to safeguard the welfare of the service users. For instance, there is need to reinforce the implementation of the care homes regulations of 2001 and the care standard Act of 2000 (Dening & Milne 2011).
The care homes regulations stipulate that care homes should have qualified and competent staff as service providers. The care homes regulations further state that the background of the service providers should be above average in terms of education and experience. It is reported that ABC care home did not scrutinise the background of the care givers before employing them and such ignorance could be the reason why the care givers at the home engage in unprofessional behaviour such as harassing of elderly clients (Begun & White 2006).
The standard care Act of 2000 outlines the quality standards which care homes must meet before they are registered and allowed to operate. The Act requires them to have the technical, financial, and human resource capacity to implement their care programs. The owners are required to provide proof of professional experience before they register the care homes (Pritchard 2009). The ABC care home needs to reinforce the implementation of codes of practice especially the code of practice for social care workers. The reason is that the care workers at the home are portrayed as having no knowledge and understanding of the code of practice for care givers and that explains why they treat the elderly clients at the home as prisoners.
How local policies and procedures can be developed in accordance with national and policy requirements
Many policies exist in form of frameworks to guide practitioners and care providers in the field of health and social care. That is to say that they are developed as general guidelines which may be customised to specific organisational policies. As such, the bodies concerned with the regulation of health policy require all health and social care providers to develop specific guidelines and policies which fit their situations. The reason is that care providers differ in terms of the clients they serve, the type of service offered, and the scope of the care they offer (Jansen, Mirr & Stauffacher 2010).
ABC care home is registered to offer health and social care services to the less fortunate in the society. The home must therefore make sure that its policies and procedures are a true reflection of the national policies. In order to do so, it needs to have an expert on health policy issues to harmonise its policy and procedures with those at the national level.
Evaluation of the impact of policy, legislation, regulation, and codes of practice on organisational policy and practice
If well implemented, policies and regulations have a positive impact on health and social care organisations. The reason is that the policies and regulations are designed and development with the overall objective of providing quality services to the clients. When organisations provide quality services to clients, they have good reputation which is necessary for their business. Health and social care organisations need to be careful when implementing policies which have a direct impact on clients. Such policies include protection of confidentiality, reduction of risks, informed consent, and client self determinism. They also need to accurately observe regulations which touch on the services given to clients and ensure that clients get services which cannot harm them (Collins, Jordan & Coleman 2009).
The ABC care home does not observe the relevant code of practice and that is why it is faced with the challenges of rebellion by residents and clients. The care givers of the home are not professional at all nor do they empathise with the clients. As a result, the Care Quality Committee (CQC) has serious accusations against the home such as injuries to patients and total failure of the home in its legal duty to inform the necessary bodies of such incidents in a timely manner. There is therefore the need to do radical reforms in the home to bring such incidents to an end (Bomar 2004).
Theories that underpin health and social care practice
One theory which underpins health and social care is Erik Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development. According to him, the ego is irrational in its demands because it makes an individual to force his or her feelings, attitudes or thoughts on other people. Egoistic individuals think that they are always correct and thus what they think, say or like should be respected by all people. That kind of reasoning is not always correct because people have different ideas or perceptions about an issue (Alexander, Fawcett & Runciman 2004).
The problem with egoistic individuals is that they do not acknowledge diversity but rather think that everything should be perceived or understood from their point of view. They regard any body with a different view as wrong and as an enemy to them. This irrational behaviour is as a result of basic mistrust which occurs when mothers act in an unreliable manner during the first stage of ego development (from birth to one year).
When not resolved, the mistrust makes children develop a sense of guilty during adulthood and think that everybody is against them. The irrational behaviour may also result from lack of control on children’s needs and demands. If children are not tought that they cannot have everything, or if they are not denied some of their irrational demands at early age, then they grow up knowing that they are supposed to get all they want at all times.
Erik Erickson theory is applicable in the case of ABC care home because the home takes care of elderly people who are vulnerable. In most cases, such people do not have families or some one to take care of them and as such, they have serious psychological problems such as depression. It is therefore good for the care givers at the home to have a good understanding of the theory for them to understand and interpret the behaviour of the clients without being judgmental (Keating 2011).
How social processes impact on users of health and social care services
In most cases, the beneficiaries of health and social care services are not ordinary people but they are people who are in difficult situations like in the case of ABC home which provides care services to vulnerable people. There are some underlying social processes which create the demand for such health and social care services. They include poverty, disabilities, unemployment, and ill health (Billings & Halstead 2011).
These social processes impact on users of health and social care services by creating stigma for them. If some one is known to be enrolled in a particular health and social care program, that person may be stigmatised by peers and labeled as a failure. The stigma leads to further exclusion because the users do not consider themselves as normal people and as a result, the healing process is compromised.
It is therefore important for care givers of ABC home to have in place programs which sensitise the community on the dangers of stigma to the clients. Having such programs can scale up the uptake of the services and help many people come out of adversaries (Morrison 2009). The institutions which provide health and social care to the less fortunate must therefore avoid any temptations to discriminate or treat the users with prejudice because it is unethical. The care programs should be designed to allow many people to access them, that is, the eligibility criteria should not be discriminatory (McLean 2006).
Effectiveness of inter-professional working
For any social protection program to be successful, it must be implemented using a multi-agency approach which involves many stakeholders pulling resources together to address a problem. This approach is based on the fact that problems are multifaceted and dynamic and as a result, they need a multifaceted approach. The partnership of various agencies promotes professionalism and also enhances the quality, effectiveness, and sustainability of the programs (Thompson & Kevin 2007).
For instance, the programs been implemented by ABC home need partnership with other agencies. The home may partner with psychologists to provide counseling to the elderly and social workers to educate them on life skills. The counseling and education can boost the self esteem of the elderly people in the home (Biggs 2010).
Development and implementation of health and social care organisational policy
Role, responsibilities, accountability and duties in the context of working with those within and outside the health and social care workplace
As a newly appointed manager of the ABC care home, I would aspire to turn around the organisation by inculcating a culture of competency, professionalism, teamwork, and work ethics. I would use the management leadership approach in my new role with the aim of bringing everybody on board in the running of the home. As the new manager, I would apply various skills such as negotiation, problem solving, communication, and bargaining skills to ensure that accountability is regained (Bowcutt, Wall, Goolsby & Mary 2006).
I would establish a quality assurance system for the organisation. The system would entail getting feedback from the service users and their perceptions and opinions on the services they get and whether they are satisfied and how the services can be improved. I would also upgrade all the systems of the organisation to comply with the current policies and regulations on health and social care (Smith & Dabbs 2007).
Own contribution to the development and implementation of health and social care organisational policy
I would launch an overhaul of the organisation’s healthcare policy and redesign it to reflect the actual needs of the service users. For instance, I would introduce a policy where the elderly people would be placed with foster families. Such a policy would not only reduce congestion in the home but would also ensure that the service users have an opportunity to live in a family setting (Corbett 2004).
Recommendations to develop own contributions to meeting good practice requirements
In order to enhance good practice in the organisation, I would enter into partnership with like minded organisations to scale up the health and social care programs. I would ensure that new staffs are recruited based on merit, professionalism, and education (Hix, McKeon, Walters & Sandra 2009). The work environment would also be improved by ensuring that the staffs have everything they need to discharge their duties effectively. I would also introduce on-the-job training of the staff to refresh their skills and knowledge and bring on board social workers and counselors to provide psychosocial support to the clients of the home (Jolene, Fache & Judith 2008).
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