Effective Caring in Health and Social Care

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

INTRODUTION TO EFFECTIVE CARING

ABSTRACT

What is Health and Social Care?

Health and Social care are made up of the two systems working together to formulate and execute care within their services for individuals in need. The health care is the government organisation, the NHS (National Health Service), while the social care is administrated by the local authority, social services, in which the dependent individual resides. Where the NHS concentrates on the health element, the social services consist of a number of agencies and organisations, which include; child protection service, charity organisations, youth work right, residential to many more. The health and social service provide support from babies to children to adults to the elderly. There are no limitations of who can use the services providing they meet the criteria of needs (Hannigan, 2018).

Method

Research from books, journals and online resources has sourced the findings in this report. References to the case study of 64-year-old lady, Anna Chosky is mentioned in the report. The report suggests some recommendations suited to the case study from the research. Barriers and constraints to positive caring are considered in this report with suggested strategies to overcome them.

Conclusion

The quality of life can be determined through different factors by different people. It is a highly subjective topic. However, it profoundly depends on the wellbeing of each individual and the source of where and how the individual is thriving in their wellbeing. In receiving effective care, its is crucial to have effective communication both from the carer and care receiver. This report points on the direction of “person centred care” where “effective caring” is focused around the care receiver.

INTRODUCTION

This report will investigate the fundamental essentials for providing the best possible effective care to individual clients in need of personal and social care. It will explore factors that outline the key techniques required to provide vulnerable clients and individuals the best possible care in order to gain a high quality of life. A detailed background of contemporary issue and constraints to positive caring will be drawn into this report that establishes the development and progression it has in the modern-day society of health and social care of vulnerable clients. Throughout this report, there will be references to Anna’s case study in order to set an understanding of the situation that Anna has to endeavour through her illness when visiting the Accident and Emergency department at the hospital. The case study will support this report’s finding and establish the importance of effective caring.

Factors required for individuals to have a high quality of life

Hannigan (2018), proposed that the quality of life can be defined as the standard measure of expectations needed to be met in order to live a good life with dignity in a community. These expectations relate to the cultural context on an individual, it depends on where the person lives and their surroundings, which can explain the ‘quality of life’ is very subjective – everyone has their own unique perception on what factors define their quality of life. For example, one individual might believe their quality of life is determined through their wealth or success in life; another individual might completely disagree and argue that the quality of life is indicated through how good their emotional and physical wellbeing is (Hannigan, 2018). Referring to Anna’s case, the constant struggling of Anna’s health can be the subjective fact of her “quality of life”. Her health can define her mobility and day to day tasks, in the fact that her severe dyspnoea, breathlessness and coughing episodes restricts her walking and movement. Where this was not the case and Anna was of good health her “quality of life” would have drastically changed her mental and physical wellbeing, leading to a much easy and independent life.

One of the leading factors controlling an individual’s quality of life could be their overall health. Often illnesses and diseases can interfere with future plans of a person, poor physical health restricts an individual to pursue their goals and aspirations. However, excellent physical health would allow a person to live up to their full potential and let them accomplish their goals – improving their quality of life. Emotional wellbeing could be a factor depending on the physical health of an individual. Often having poor physical health can lead to unhappy minds. This is because being ill can lead to a person being dissatisfied with their life, and a high quality of life would need a person to be satisfied with their life. To lead a typical ‘good’ life, a person should feel a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction, which would not be possible if a person is conflicted because of their emotional and physical instability. This unsteadiness can also affect the social aspect that determines the quality of life. Poor emotional health could lead to social awkwardness, anxiety and social insecurity, which would tarnish the quality of one’s individual life (Peate, I. 2017).

Research shows religious involvement to be linked with longer lifespans and healthier states of mind (Streimikiene, D. 2015). Streimkiene’s considers that religious participation allows a person to indulge in ceremonies and organisations which would encourage a sense of union in a society and improve the quality of life. Religion also teaches to stray away from immortality and encourage good deeds, which would inevitably boost their quality of life. It also introduces that life has a purpose, which allows an individual to feel contented and satisfied with their life. This can link to cultural aspects as well, as religion is often associated with their social heritage of a community. Therefore, the quality of life is subjective, and can be determined by the community one lives in. For example, in a religious community, the quality of life would heavily depend on how well an individual fulfils their religious goals. However, in a non-religious community, the quality of life is the environmental state of the surroundings (Streimikiene, D. (2015).

Key Caring Techniques

(Freeman, 2019)

The above mind map, created by the Gocongr group (Freeman, A. (2019), outlines some of the key essential skills and techniques required in order to provide a healthy, caring, support to dependent clients. In order to provide the best possible care, it is vital for practitioners to acquire good understanding and knowledge of their client’s health background. Building a good rapport and relation with the client can also make the care easy to provide and receive for each other. In turn, proficient observation and effective communication plays an essential role in obtaining the best possible care for clients. A vital aspect of health and care service workers is their understanding and development of appropriate communication skills that can be used to transfer crucial information to extended health care services and to family members, but most importantly between themselves and the client they are caring for (Moss, 2017). In order to establish and maintain a healthy relationship between the care giver and care receiver, effective communication is vital on the role of the carer. For the best interest of the dependent client the carer must have the basic skills of listening, questioning, responding and understanding, without being intrusive and intimidating towards the dependent.

According to Lishman (2015), clients and patients of health, social care and early years services, mostly rely on their health care professional carer or family member carer for acquiring and delivering information. (Lishman, J, p. 53).

The list of key techniques in providing an effective and successful care can go on and on, however some can be more fundamental than the other. A crucial area is client and care worker trust and respectfulness. A huge responsibility on the care giver becomes imperative to enable trust and respect from the dependent client. These key techniques can provide the essential foundation in building good practice and support the outcome of positive health development for the client (Kilpatrick et el, 2019).

(Manton Heights ABI Unit, 2019)

Psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987) developed the “person-centred care”. The theory initially named client-centred approach, referring to the association between the therapist and the client. However, Rogers later changed the name to “person centred care”, so that the theory can be conceptualised to the development and growth of an individual’s self-actualisation, and the theory can be practiced broadly through healthcare and beyond. This theory works well in maintaining a healthy work cycle to support a healthy work ethic for care workers in their practice. The “person centred care”, approach can provide a positive outcome for both the care worker and their client, in the fact that both the care giver and care receiver can feel a sense of positive achievement (McLeod 2014).

Constraints to positive caring

NHS England (2017), have outlined some of the constraint they have been facing over the years, which includes the financial difficulty, change in government policy and also the population with substantial amount of health issues. These issues put’s the NHS under pressure in maintaining their service for the betterment in running successfully. With current government changes the NHS may struggle further in providing enough professional workers to care for patients, in the fact that the NHS has a vast amount of foreign national professionals throughout their service who may be at risk of leaving the UK because of new government law in regards of Brexit (England, 2017).

Although communication plays a key role in delivering the best possible care, there can be several impediments that could disturb the effectiveness of communication; some of these barriers may be impairment of language, illiteracy, disability, personality, vision or hearing. For these reasons, it is imperative that care workers are properly trained and have full knowledge of their client’s health history and are able to apply appropriate care and support to the best of their ability (Hannigan, B. 2018).

According to Watkins et al, Lack of effective communication within the healthcare and social care services can become a constraint in providing a positive care to the client. They go on to elaborate that mishandled or not correctly documented element of a dependent client’s health can lead to failing to provide justice to the client’s wellbeing (Watkins et al., 2017).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion the “Introduction to effective caring” should be made up off various services providers by the Health and Social care services that are carried out by dedicated, well trained and skilled care workers that possess the ability to provide a safe, caring support system for both the vulnerable individual who is receiving the care and the family member who is the main carer for that individual. Health and social care users may expect their carer to be genuinely caring, reliable, trustworthy, empathetic and emotionally supportive. Strategic communication can facilitate to overcome any hindrances to effective communication (Kilpatrick, Elliott and Fry, 2019).

In providing effective care the “person centred care” (Rogers, 1959), approach fits into how the health and social care system work. The service and organisation work around the best interest of the service user. Although there maybe constraints and barriers that can easily rise due to the amount of services working together. The research here has identified some of these constraints and it can be concluded that overall the best start to effective care is effective communication to begin with.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Referring to Anna’s case study, in addition to Anna’s health concerns, it is important to acknowledge Anna’s main carer, her daughter Desiree, who would also need support with supporting her mother. Health and social care services can provide extra support by allocating a dedicated care worker for a couple of hours a week to take responsibility in providing the care to Anna and allow Desiree some time off. Where a family member is the main carer, consideration towards their mental and emotional wellbeing needs to be considered so that they can also live a mentally healthy balanced life style in order to keep up their energy and sanity to endure the amount of pressure they go through in providing the care for the dependent one (Ross, Tod and Clarke, 2014).

In regard to Anna’s case study, her age and constant health issues can advertise the vast amount of care and attention she would require throughout her day to day life and during her time at the hospital. Considering Anna’s age and health conditions, the health care and social services should already have obtained information of her current situation, which would then enable the health care practitioners the correct support and care proposed for Anna.

Excellent communication is imperative in order to support those in need of the health and social care services. Effective communication between the care provider and the dependent is vital in order to provide the best possible care and support needed. It also improves interpersonal relationships, giving health and social care practitioners the proper tools and skills to successfully care for their clients. Effective communication skills provide people in a vulnerable situation to feel secure, safe and also respected.

REFERENCES

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