UNIT 5,7and,8 MEETING INDIVIDUAL CARE AND SUPPORT NEEDS Inton, Maria Sophia Ernestine L3 Health and Social Care

TASK 1 SECTION A INTRODUCTION There are many different ways to support individuals in the health and social care settings and how to meet their needs professionally. Some of the key points to meet this mission is to apply care values, promote equality and diversity in the workplace, follow rules and regulations and to ensure that their own choices and preferences are being adhered when planning for their care and treatment. In this assignment, I will be discussing about what are the possible ways to meet individuals’ needs and how are we (as healthcare professionals) going to ensure that equality and diversity are being applied during the process. To better understand the topics, there are various case scenarios included for each key points. Case Scenario 1 Nusrat Patel is 19 years of age and has learning disabilities and epilepsy. She has recently left her residential school and now lives full time with her mother. Nusrat’s mother has recently given up work to care for her, but is finding this very stressful. Nusrat’s father died when she was five years old. Nusrat now attends the community centre. Staff and volunteers at the community centre are aware of Nusrat’s right to be involved in decisions about her own care. However, as she has learning disabilities, it was decided to also involve Nusrat’s mother, as her main carer. Nusrat sometimes has difficulty in expressing her own needs, wants and wishes and the team has included an advocate who has experience in working with individuals who have learning disabilities. Nusrat has her own personal care plan at the centre, which has been formulated taking a person-centred approach. The plan focuses on Nusrat’s abilities rather than her disabilities and is flexible to incorporate any necessary changes. The plan includes the designation of a named person Nusrat can come to if she has concerns. Nusrat becomes frequently distressed and so the named person has completed a counselling training course, which incorporated positive communication skills, in order to support her. The planning process for Nusrat included graphical facilitation so that a circle of support, which includes Nusrat, her mother and the named person, could be designed. Other individuals may be added as appropriate. Nusrat enjoys dance and drama and has joined activities at the centre. The team who runs the activities has produced Makaton sheets for any scripts or routines to be followed, so that Nusrat can fully participate in activities and productions. Nusrat’s epilepsy is not, currently, well controlled and it has been agreed that a volunteer will accompany Nusrat to the bathroom to enable emergency action if this is needed. The volunteer is aware that she must be discreet in order not to compromise Nusrat’s right to dignity. With the agreement of Nusrat and her mother, the centre manager has arranged a meeting with Nusrat’s G.P. to discuss improved management of Nusrat’s epilepsy. The G.P. has now referred Nusrat to a specialist nurse practitioner, who is an expert in epilepsy. Nusrat has a trusting nature and is likely to attach herself to anyone who appears friendly. This has raised safeguarding concerns and so a list of ‘friends’ using photographs and Makaton symbols has been provided for Nusrat, to support her independence, whilst contributing to her safety. Learning Aim A: Examine principles, values and skills which underpin meeting the care and support needs of individuals. (AP1) Explain the importance of promoting equality and diversity for individuals with different needs. In this world full of inequality and discrimination, individuals still believe that everyone should have access to facilities especially to the support and care they’d be getting from health and social care regardless of their circumstances. It is the responsibility of the healthcare staff to efficiently promote equality and diversity across all areas of their workforce, providing a service that is fair, person-centred and diverse. Equality and Diversity are key components in the delivery of care services. Good practices means encouraging and promoting these components wherever possible. It is also part of the responsibilities of the staff to ensure that through their work, service users receives the fair and equal treatment with dignity and respect. Equality and Diversity should be the centre of service planning. Before anyone, even a professional could be able to promote equality and diversity within a health and social care setting, it is vital to understand what they mean. Within the health and social care terminology, Equality is defined as ensuring that all service users can access the same opportunities regardless of lifestyle, ability, or ethnic background. On the other hand, Diversity is defined as demonstrating respect for an individual’s belief, values, culture and lifestyle and considering differences and own preferences. Staff and members within the care sector are required to have a fine knowledge in promoting these key components. Promoting equality and diversity includes scrutinising care and support plans, identifying a service user’s needs, recognising differences and reducing inequality. To be able to achieve this, service providers should make the Common Core Strategic Principles as the centre of achieving goals within the workforce. These principles has been approved by the Department of Health and Care Quality Commission to be efficient within the sector. Strategic principles involves promoting equality and diversity through mission statements, core values and strategic action plans. Referring to the case scenario of Nusrat Patel, she is said to have a learning disability. A condition which doesn’t deserve to be discriminated but unfortunately, due to the society’s ignorance, circumstances happens. Nusrat can possibly get discriminated by other individuals even at the centre which is why staff should have the adequate knowledge and proper training to be able to promote equality and diversity and prevent discrimination from happening. This can help not only Nusrat but other service users and service providers at the same time. It has been shown that the staff at the centre provided Nusrat the appropriate equipments and facilities. Despite her disability, the staff never hesitated to give her the best care and treatment they could offer. Such as providing her her own GP and nurse to help her manage her condition, including her in activities runned by a team at the centre. The staff has shown equality and diversity through involving different individuals with different needs in one activity. This proves that having a condition and/or disability doesn’t hindrance one person in participating such activities, only if the individuals are given appropriate equipment and treatment so that they won’t feel as if they’re being excluded. If any individual is given the unfair treatment and is not given the chance to speak up for his/her own values and preferences, the individual can feel and/or experience disappointment, anxiety, stress and depression, all of these affects the mental health which can cause the individual to feel not confident and rather choose to be alone as they’d think no one understands them or their condition. Moreover, it is important to promote equality and diversity in any health and social care settings because if there’s harmony and the service users are being valued and encouraged then this makes it easy for the care providers to deliver the care and treatment services professionally and efficiently. This also makes it easy for them to build positive relationships with the service users which leads to effective communication and interaction. (AP2) Explain the skills and personal attributes necessary for professionals who care for individuals with different needs. A skill is the ability to do something well or to be expert in something. On the other hand, a personal attributes is the qualities or characteristics that make an individual who they are, to be specific: their personality. Care professionals are known to be compassionate people who are naturally caring in the nature. When pursuing a profession in healthcare, it is necessary that you have the skills and attributes required. These skills and attributes will help you a lot in dealing with different individuals in different situations. Again, if you are desiring to be a care professional, there are specific skills and personal attributes that you need to consider. These are as follows, One, professionalism. Developing professionalism in health and social care sector involves aspects of behaviour, communication and appearance, situational awareness and judgment of what is appropriate in different contexts. Here are some aspects of professionalism that paramedics and other care professionals in the study identified: Showing clinical judgment and competence; Having a clear separation between work and your private life especially where social media is concerned; Having a positive attitude and willingness to learn and communicate with people; Treating people fairly; Wearing appropriate clothing such as uniform; Communicating in a way that respects others. Second, communication and interpersonal skills. These are among the main tools used by care professionals. Having appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication allows them to find out what problems an individual is experiencing, and allows them to explain the options for care. Interpersonal skills help the care worker tune in to the individual’s feelings. Third, organisational skills. This is the ability to organise oneself by effective time management, and by prioritising tasks. If you’re gonna be the type of care worker who is late for appointments with service users, you won’t inspire confidence. Fourth, if you want to be a care professional then you should be supportive, encouraging, and patient. As part of your job, you will be supporting individuals with different needs on enabling them live their lives from day to day basis. You will need to support and encourage people patiently. Fifth, understanding. Being able to understand the issues facing the clients is essential for being a good care worker. Once you can understand the world from someone’s perspective, you can do what you can to help. By listening and understanding, you can find ways to meet what the client needs. In addition, you’ve got to be sensitive in a proper way. When a care worker or professional is sensitive to the needs of others, it’s much easier to understand what needs to be done. Care workers are often challenged with clients who desperately need to talk about their experiences. Being sensitive allows the care worker the flexibility to listen. This then builds trust. Now, as we look back to Nusrat’s case scenario, the health and social care staff that are providing care for her should have the skills and attributes stated above. Professionalism, in a whole, being professional is really necessary when working in a healthcare this simply means having an appropriate behaviour towards the service user. Staff at the centre who will be dealing with Nusrat should act professional as part of their job. If you are a person who doesn’t have knowledge about individuals with learning disabilities then chance is, you are more likely to cause them harm as you’re just gonna underestimate their abilities, act recklessly and in an appropriate way towards them. That is why, when working in a health and social care sector, you must have this skill. It is also important that Nusrat’s ideas are being adhered, considering that she has learning disabilities and won’t be able to relay messages in a most appropriate way, there should be someone who is willing to listen, understand and patiently communicate with her. Nusrat may receive this support from the designated person assigned to her, as the person is skilled and has incorporated communication skills which is a good thing because Nusrat will be listened to and so she wouldn’t feel lonely and ignored. Another skill that the staff should have is the organisational skills, though this skill is effectively applied in the case scenario of Nusrat through various ways - producing Makaton sheets for her during the activities, providing her with a support worker which can accompany her when going to the bathroom, and arranging appointments for her G.P. to manage her epilepsy. The staff was able to apply organisational skills when planning care and support for Nusrat. This is to ensure that everything is organised for her as she won’t be able to organise it by herself due to her condition and although she has an advocate, they still need support in such things which is why organisational skills is very much important for the health care workers to have. Moving onto attributes, it is also important that the workers who are providing Nusrat the care and support should be patient, encouraging and understanding. Let’s admit it - it is really difficult to be patient when dealing with individuals who has different needs but if you can’t control your agitation then you can’t deal with such individuals. For the service users such as Nusrat to feel more comfortable with her care providers, the care providers must have these positive attributes. This will allow Nusrat to feel more comfortable with her carers and the carers are more likely to know her more and be able to meet her needs efficiently. In conclusion, professionals working in health and social care fields and if you are one of those people who are pursuing a career in healthcare, you must have those skills and attributes stated above. Having the knowledge and being able to apply these when dealing with different individuals with different care needs can have a huge impact when delivering services. Positively, the needs of the individuals are more likely to be met. (AM1) Analyse the impact of preventing discrimination for individuals with different needs. All of us eat, breathe, and drink. We breathe the same air and we all have feelings. We are all humans. That makes me wonder on what makes us different that we discriminate each other?