Evaluate the use of care plans in applying person centred values

Care plans are very important for us to deliver individualised care. It informs us how care should be delivered to an individual according to person centred way. Care plans are comprised of many parts including short biography, medical history, mental capacity assessment, mobility plan, wishes, choices and risk assessment etc. It helps us to understand what level of support an individual needs and how should it be delivered. We can find out an individual’s wishes, choices and preferences from the care plan. Care plan also informs us whether any other factors (such as risk, safety and medical condition) will prevent us from applying person centred values. Few examples of how to use care plan in applying person centred values are describe here in below-

• Personal Biography: We can derive personal information from this part including preferred name to be called, profession, birthday, activities and interests. It can help us to support individuality, dignity and choices.
• Medical History: Medical history provides us information about an individual’s past and present diagnosis, which can restrict over personal choices.
• Mobility Care Plan: It can help us to find out about an individual’s mobility and best way to support an individual’s independence.
• Nutritional Care Plan: Nutritional care plan informs us what an individual likes to eat and drink which helps us to support an individual’s wishes and choices.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Describe person centred approaches

Any approaches that support an individual’s unique quality of life are called person centred approaches - Defined By Foisal Talukdar.

Person centred approach is an approach to determine care and provide support to an individual, taking into account of individual’s unique quality, choices, abilities and needs. When an individual lives in a group of other individuals in a residential, nursing or supported home, then care and support should be provided according to each individual’s preferences and needs. Few person centred approaches are described here in below-

• Providing entrance and exit facilities respecting individual’s disabilities and special needs
• Providing information in verbal, written and Braille format
• Providing activities that attract and cover all individuals interests
• Providing brochure and food menu services to respect choices
• Providing interpreter or translation service for the people with language and cultural differences
• Using signs and marks in the premises, to make individuals as much independent as possible
• Providing facilities that respect user’s disability
By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain how person-centred values should influence all aspects of social care work

Treat everyone as an individual with respect. Support them to make their choices and respect their choices and privacy. Promote equality and diversity and support their independence. Support establishing individual’s rights. Involve individuals in assessing, planning, developing and implementing their care and support needs. Involve individuals, their families, advocates and GPs in any decision making process.

Example: Treat everyone as an individual. Address individual in their preferred name. Ask permission before carry out any task for them. Close the door when personal care is being provided. Provide them with various options so that they can make informed choices. Support them to make choices if they are unable to make so. Include and support them to any decision making process.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Describe the components of a personal development plan

Target/Goal: Target is an aim of your career life. It is like what you would like to become in the future. Where would you like to reach as part of career or professional development?

Strength: Strength is your current capabilities and understandings about the profession. It also expresses your curiosity to explore wider area of this profession.

Feedback: Feedback is a way to know what others think about your current practice. It helps to identify areas you need to improve knowledge and skills.

Development Needs: It is about training and qualifications, you need to accomplish in order to reach your ambition. You also need to identify areas need improvement of your current practice.

Action Plan: Action plan is to determine the way you are going to achieve these qualifications and trainings (such as enrolling for NVQ in Health and Social Care level 3 with XYZ Academy, completing first aid training from ABC network).

Milestone or Timeline: It is about to set up a time frame for each training and qualifications you have to achieve. It will help you to be more dedicated towards your learning and development.

Review: Review is required to measure up whether action plans are effective or not. It helps to find out whether you have accomplished training and qualifications according to timeframe, or you have to set up a new timeframe.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain the importance of using feedback in improving own practice

We all want recognition of our good job which helps to earn a good reputation for ourselves and the organisation we work for. Good reputation is only possible if we receive positive feedback on our service. If we receive negative feedback, then we should be working on areas to improve which are not meeting service expectations or standard. Therefore, feedbacks either positive or negative are both very important to improve our own practices. Negative feedback informs us which areas of service we need to improve and positive feedback informs us which practices are doing very well.

You can use feedback to identify your learning and development needs to improve your practices. If you receive negative feedback, then you should work on areas need to improve your practices, and adhere to learning new skills in order to provide best quality of service.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain how standards inform reflective practice in adult social care

To work accordance with codes of practice and conduct a social care worker must:

• Protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers
• Delivery of care must be person centred
• Be accountable for the quality of their work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving their knowledge and skills

All of the above standards can only be maintained if we reflect on our practice and adhere to improve our knowledge and skills. In order to promote service users interests, we have to find out service users best interests at first. Not every service user we may come across is capable to express their interest or chose what best for them. For this reason, we require to find out the best interest for every individual service user, by implementing various practices and evaluating each practice.

In order to deliver care according to person centred, we have to take into account individuality of every service user. Every individual is different and so should be our approaches and practices, to deliver services effectively. In order to provide service according to unique individuality of every service user, we have to reflect on our practice to find out best practices for each individual. 

When we will reflect on our practices, we have to evaluate our own performance to find out areas we need improving our knowledge and skills. Without evaluating our performance we will not be able to identify needs for improving knowledge and skills. It is very important to have our knowledge and skills up to date for gaining public trust in health and social care sector.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Describe potential conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between the duty of care and an individual’s rights

Balance between duty of care and individual’s right must be maintained professionally. If you cannot deal with dilemmas, you may always seek advice from your superiors (such as Manager, Team leader or senior carer).

Dilemmas or conflicts may arise between the duty of care and an individual rights in following ways -

·       An individual wants to go out himself to exercise his ‘freedom of movement rights’ when he has not got mental capacity to do so safely.

·       A distressed individual wants a carer to keep a secret about lending a big amount of money to his/her friend which is not returned in time.

·       An individual makes inappropriate comments, sometimes in public, under his ‘freedom of speech’ rights, which is not liked by others. But explaining him to prevent it makes him angry.

·       An individual wants to make choices about their own care that are not in their own best interests.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar