Unit 2 : Principles of Health and Social Practice

Introduction

Health care industry has emerged to be the world’s largest industry. The improvements in the healthcare have led to a gradual increase in the life expectancy and also improved the overall quality of life. Subsequently, Principles health social practices assignment has emerged as a service industry with tremendous potential. It emphasizes on leading a healthy life by understanding the needs of the patients and reacting accordingly. The recent changes made by the government in this sector have attracted the attention of many educated and technical professional towards it (Curtis, 2012). The concept of care homes is becoming more popular. However, it is essential to understand the basic procedures and principles for being a care giver. The same can be understood by the given assignment of ABC Care Home Scenario.

Task 1

1.1 explain how principles of support are applied to ensure that individuals are cared for in health and social care practice

ABC Care Home Scenario is especially for the old aged. They take shelter in such care homes because of their personal issues like health or disability or because of social reasons like negligence from the family or any other reasons. The demands of the body increase with age and the ability to cater them decreases. This is where the role of such care homes comes to play. In order to be a care giver at such care homes, there are certain principles of health and social care that should be kept in mind. These are:

Increasing Choice and Control:The home cares look forward to establish a relationship between the health care professionals and the old aged and empower them to play a more active role in managing their health.
Care: They should be handled with great care, love and affection.
Promote Health:The prime purpose of the care giver is to look after the health of the resident. Hence it is his duty to be proactive in his approach and make every possible initiative of health promotion which is in the benefit of the health of the person.
Respect for Privacy and Self-esteem: The care giver has to ensure that the privacy of the resident is respected at all times and he lives a life of dignity in the care home. Their mere dependence on the staff for their daily activities does not entitle the staff to humiliate or frustrate them.
Encouraging Independence: The old aged people in the home care should be given enough space to perform their daily chores on their own. The residents should exercise their right to decide what to wear, where to go and what to do in their free time. They should be given sufficient time to adjust to the surroundings.
Adopting a Whole-person approach:The care giver should consider all the factors having an impact on the health of the older person’s wellbeing before deciding on the procedure to be adopted for care (Leichsenring, 2004).
Risk Taking Responsibility:The care giver should not demotivate the old aged at the care home from doing activities which have risk involved in them. Instead great care should be taken while they are performing that activity to avoid any harm.

1.2) outline the procedure for protecting clients, patients, and colleagues from harm

The health and safetyof the old aged is the responsibility of the care giver. The procedures and means which the care giver may adopt to prevent the people in the old care home from any undesirables situations are: -

Supporting Health Care Needs:Supporting the basic health care needs of the residents is the responsibility of the care giver.Some residents may suffer from old age related problems like hypertension, diabetes and are on medication. The care giver should take proper care to ensure that they take their medicines at proper times and regularly. They also need to take care that the resident is taking a balanced and nutritious diet.
Supporting Personal Care and Appearance:The old aged patients at the home care require regular grooming and personal care. It is the duty of the care givers to maintain the basic hygiene and cleanliness of the residents.
Supporting Emotional Well Being:The old aged people at care home may have suffered mental trauma or depression as they may have faced negligence from their children, spouses or relatives. Hence, they need a lot of emotional support and need to be dealt with a lot of care and patience.
Supporting Mobility:Sometimes, the residents are unable to walk on their own or have some physical disability. In such cases, it is the duty of the care giver to help them in moving around the facility for regular check-ups and daily chores and take care of their safety inside and outside the care home.

1.3) analyse the benefit of following a person-centred approach with users of health and social care services

Judging the needs of the people, the kind of care required by them and the methods by which the care may be given to them is known as a person-centred approach. The care givers should possess problem solving and information giving skills in addition to being flexible (Al-Ameen, 2014). A person-centric approach offers the following benefits:

It creates a positive, healthy and beneficial environment for the old aged people at the care home. The whole atmosphere becomes cohesive and the things become easy to manage and control.
The old aged people become self-motivated and remain happy as they get a feeling of being wanted.
It helps in building better relationships in the facility. The old aged people feel a sense of association with the care givers and hence are very co-operative with them because of the bond they develop.
The old aged people are very difficult to handle as they are particular about the style in which they have been living with. A person centric approach can help them to change their lifestyle towards a positive direction.

1.4) explain ethical dilemmas and conflict that may arise when providing care, support and protection to users of health and social care services

The old aged people are very fussy about small things like the way the dress and the food they eat. A care giver faces a lot of ethical dilemmas while handling them. Mr Taylor is 60 years old and is a diabetic. He has a sweet tooth and often has cravings for sweet dishes. In case he is refrained from having sweet dishes he gets really irritated and frustrated. He gets adamant on not even taking his routine meals if he is not given sweets. At this age, it is viable for his health to stay hungry for long hours. But he throws tantrums that he will take food only if he has sweets and even steels at times. This is an ethical dilemma for the care giver as giving sweets to Mr Taylor is not good for his health, but he just doesn’t seem to listen. Hence sweets are given to him with less sugar content and in a restricted manner with regular monitoring of blood glucose levels.

Task 2

2.1) explain the implementation of policies, legislation, regulations and codes of practice that are relevant to own work in health and social care

The care home helps the old aged people to lead a life of respect and self-esteem. They have been left alone by their families because of financial liability or physical disability. The care home looks after the needs of such old people and is governed by a separate code of conduct and legislations and ethics as mentioned by law. These guidelines are given below: -

Agents and Appointees: Agents and appointees are nominees who are appointed by the residents. They pay for the fees or any other payments of the residents till the time the resident is in the facility of the home care. These nominees could be the relatives or friends of the resident. The department of Social Service appoints the nominee, if the resident does not have a relative or a friend.
Safety Laws: The environment of the care home is governed by stringent rules and regulations to prevent any mishap from happening in the premises of the care home. It also takes into consideration rules regarding any happening or incident which may hamper the daily schedule of the residents. Any attendant, staff or individual violating the rules is dealt with very strictly.
Power of Attorney: If the old aged person is incapable of performing the financial or legal transactions on his own, the same by authorized to an agent or any relative. This is known as power of attorney. The person delegated the authority in this case is responsible for all the actions taken by the individual. (Walker, Alber & Guillemard, 1993).
Trusts: Sometimes, the residents have a good amount of financial assets and are themselves physically incapable of managing them. In such situations the trusts manage the finances of the old aged people in the care home.
Court of Protection: The court of protection exists to solve any financial issues or conflicts that may arise for the old aged. This is especially for the advantage of the old aged who does not have a relative or any agent to solve the conflict.

2.2) explain how local policies and procedures can be developed in accordance with national and policy requirements

The policies are procedures in the home care for the elderly have to be maintained according to the national policy requirements. The same have been explained below:

Appointing of Agents: The family members or relatives need to be appointed are agents. And the agents are accountable for the timely renewal of fees. They are also responsible in case of any emergency related to the patient.
The old aged also have the right to lead to high quality, disease free life. The basic requirements for this are Health, Care and Nutrition. Hence the care home is responsible for fulfilling these three basic needs and requirements of old-age people to ensure that they do not have dependence on anybody to lead a high quality life.
The social, economic and cultural barriers need to be removed. All the residents have an equal right to lead a high quality life irrespective of any discrimination. This principle is called expanding the community services.
The old aged people should be given a balanced and nutritious diet so as to help them lead a healthy life in this declining phase.

2.3) evaluate the impact of policy, legislation, regulation, and codes of practice on organisational policy and practice

The rules and regulations of the national policy also have an impact on the regulations and laws of the home care for old people. The same have been explained below:

Optimum levels of health and nutrition are maintained at the home care.
Best possible hygiene facilities are maintained.
Regular health camps are being conducted.
Administration of the facility have become more efficient
All the dues from the relatives or agents of the elderly people have been cleared.
The policies have encouraged community services and more such centres have been opened to ensure that the adults lead a life of great respect and dignity (Hugman & Smith, 1995).

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Task 3

3.1) explain the theories that underpin health and social care practice

The theories that underpin one’s work in a social care centre are: -

Values and Ethics: This is related to the conflicts one might have due to his value centre that gets affected by certain activities at the social care home. An elderly person who has been living for the last 5-6 decades of his life governed by certain set of values and is now suddenly made to follow some other set of values, is bound to have conflicts (Shanas, 1979).
Discriminatory Approach: Sometimes due to direct orders from higher authorities, the attendants have to show some personal bias towards certain patients at the cost of other patients that can harm the atmosphere within the social care home.
Automatic Selection: There are times when there is a possibility of conflict in the choice of a particular activity by the attendant or by the patient. Even though the activity is not favourable for the patient and the patient is adamant to do that, the attendant faces a dilemma as to what he/she should do in this case.
Social Learning:Social care home for the aged people is a place where elderly people spend maximum time interacting and communicating with people of similar age group. They tend to learn and pick up a lot of things from the peer group and then try to imitate the same once they are in their enclosure. But some activities that are harmless to one individual might be harmful to them.

3.2) analyse how social processes impact on users of health and social care services

Social processes prevalent in our society can have both positive and negative impact on the service users in the home. They can affect the social care home in the following ways: -

People in the social care home tend to find other people compatible with them in the facility and prefer spending maximum time with them as they like each other’s company and cherish their friendships.
Social or peer groups within the social care home tend to provide the elderly people with friends and sometimes partners. When they start spending time interacting and indulging in activities, a bond of social togetherness grows and people in old age enjoy the same (House, Kessler & Herzog, 1990).
It can so happen that at time attendants of the social care home are asked to perform their duties every day without fail but then in cases where the duties are dependent on some other activity then there is a conflict. For example if the afternoon time is reserved for cleanliness and organizing the patients room and suddenly if an elderly person feels like sleeping or resting at that very time it’s almost impossible to refuse and the activity gets postponed and later the attendant is penalized for negligence.
People in the social care home tend to find other people compatible with them in the facility and prefer spending maximum time with them as they like each other’s company and cherish their friendships.
Human being is one of the most intelligent creations of God, but when it comes committing crimes he is also the most dangerous. Some of the most heinous and cruel crimes are known to have been committed on elderly people as they provide minimum resistance to the criminals and are easy targets.

3.3) evaluate the effectiveness of inter-professional working

Different health and social care policies encourage people in the social care home to work and in some cases support their needs and desires themselves by indulging in some useful and creative activities. Elderly people in these facilities tend to form groups with the people they get along well with and undertake some activity. These activities keep them occupied and at the same time address their immediate needs and wants. These also provide a sense of confidence in the person as he gets the feeling of being independent at such a high age.

The facility can conduct workshops where they can teach other people to perform these activities and in turn they can get to learn other activities thereby making the social care home self-sustaining and independent. For example people in the social care home can build small projects for students and can earn money with which they can buy stuff for their daily need. They tend to apply the expertise of what they have learnt during their younger days and perform activities similar to that as they are proficient in them (Anttonen, & Sipilä, 1996).

Task 4

4.1) explain own role, responsibilities, accountabilities and duties in the context of working with those within and outside the health and social care workplace

The major points to be considered on priority basis as the newly appointed manager of the home care would be:

The quality issues at the home care should be attended to by introducing quality policies to ensure that the food is of good quality and the cleanliness and hygiene is maintained at all times.
Policies should be developed to deal with the staff that violates the policies at the care home.
A proactive approach should be followed to plan for emergencies as there are chances of emergency arising at home care of the elderly.
Proper training for handling the elderly to be given to all the care givers.
Inspection of the home care centre should be done on a regular basis by setting up a special quality commission.
The needs of the patients should be understood and attended with top priority.
Special departments to be set up for different tasks and a head to be appointed for each for regular basis to avoid abuse of any kind.

4.2) evaluate own contribution to the development and implementation of health and social care organisational policy

In addition to the guidelines mentioned in the care quality commission, the other policies that could be implemented as a manager at the social care home to make the system more perfect in implementation.

The most important problem that needs to be immediately addressed in the care home for the old aged is of abuse. Many a times the officials are not even aware of the abuses made to the old aged. A formal committee needs to be formed to look into this matter. The staff members found guilty should be given a strict punishment to the extent of suspending their services from the care centre and not offering them a re-employment at all.

A proper hierarchy needs to be set up to check the implementation of the processes and policies being adopted at the care centre.

Workshops maybe arranged for the old aged people to make them aware of their rights and also train them to manage their basic needs.

Proper account of the supply of medicines can be maintained to avoid any misuse of the same.

Regular counselling sessions may be organized for the elderly people who have suffered from abuse. This will help them to put the past behind and lead a normal life ahead.

4.3) make recommendations to develop own contributions to meeting good practice requirements.

A number of recommendations can be made for the development and implementation of the organizational structure and policies to make the activities at the facility more efficient and organized.

Proactive approach to pre-plan and hence avoid undue emergencies
The critical activities of the care home to be monitored personally to avoid any untoward incidents.
Appointing separate committees for evaluating the basic functioning of the social care home.
Regularly updating the care quality commission regarding all the faulty activities in the care home and the bad practices being followed there.
Protocols to be developed to maintain the health and hygiene of cleanliness and ensuring the implementation of the protocols.
Regular training of the staff at the care centre.
In order to ensure that entire staff is well-equipped to perform all kinds of activities, the policy of staff rotation should be followed. This will also ensure that the old aged are not being subjected to any abuses and no wrong practices are being practiced at the care centre.
The dealing with the people should be fair i.e. no discrimination or biases should be made on any parameters (Adler & Newman, 2002).
Arrangement for regular health check-ups and a visiting faculty of well qualified doctors.
A healthy and friendly working environment should be maintained in the facility to ensure that the elderly are willing to become a part of the care home for a better quality of life ahead.

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Conclusions

The concept of social care centres for the old aged is gaining popularity these days because of the advent of nuclear families and the changing lifestyles of the people. However it is important to maintain all the policies and procedures required for a care home as per the guidelines in order to offer good services and a better quality of life to the old aged. Offering better service would help to gain a larger customer base. But this is possible only after attending to all the problems mentioned and adhering to all the policies as mentioned.

References

Curtis, L. (2012). Unit costs of health and social care 2012. Personal Social Services Research Unit. Leichsenring, K. (2004). Providing integrated health and social care for older persons—A European overview. Providing integrated health and social care for older persons—A European overview of issues at stake. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 9-52. Al-Ameen, A. (2014). Person-Centred Approach. In Antitrust: The Person-centred Approach (pp. 23-52). Springer International Publishing. Walker, A., Alber, J., & Guillemard, A. M. (1993). Older people in Europe: Social and economic policies. Ageing and later life, 1, 269. Hugman, R., & Smith, D. (Eds.). (1995). Ethical issues in social work. Psychology Press. Shanas, E. (1979). The family as a social support system in old age. The Gerontologist, 19(2), 169-174.

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