Care Values Flashcards
Promoting equality in care practice
Equality in care practice relates to areas such as race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation and religious beliefs. People have the same right to receive care whatever their background or beliefs. A care worker needs not only to be aware of this but also to be active in promoting it in their practice. Equality applies not only to the people you support but also your work colleagues.
Promoting peoples rights
The right to choice: Individuals should be included in decision-making regarding their care – what food they want to eat, what treatments they wish to have. Giving the individual the information they need to make informed choices.
The right to independence: Individuals should be allowed and encouraged to do as much for themselves as possible, if the care staff do everything for them they may feel useless and not try to do things for themselves and become dependent on staff or carers for everything.
The right to empowerment: Individuals should be provided with the necessary support to be able to do things for themselves, this could be:
Provision of aids and adaptations, training or occupational therapy to enable them to do things for themselves to maintain their right to independence.
provision of information so that individuals have the knowledge and understanding to make their own decisions or choices
The right to safety: Care workers must do everything possible to protect individuals from harm.
Respecting peoples preferences and differences
Acknowledging individuals’ personal beliefs and identity means that care workers should try to communicate that they accept the person for who they are and what they believe in. Care workers may not always share the beliefs and lifestyle of the people they care for but should still show that they accept individuals’ individuality.
Promoting anti-discriminatory practice
Discrimination may be direct or indirect and can include: racist and sexist jokes, isolating clients with mental health problems, avoiding looking at someone, ignoring the needs of someone with HIV, excluding certain residents from activities.
Maintaining confidentiality and trust
Confidentiality is about keeping information private when it should be kept private. This includes written records computer records and verbal information.
A health and social care worker will know a great deal about the person they are looking after. It is essential that the information is kept confidential and not passed on without the individual’s permission. Some information may have to be passed on from one care worker to another, from a nurse to a doctor, but this must be done with the individual’s permission. The death of a patient does not give you the right to break confidentiality.
Confidentiality can only be broken in exceptional circumstances – if the individual is at risk or if the public is at risk.
Confidentiality can be maintained by:
Storing all records and sensitive material in locked filing cabinets or password protected computers
Carrying out consultations in a private room
Not gossiping about patients outside the care setting
Providing support and advocacy
An advocacy service is provided by an advocate who is independent of social services and the NHS, and who isn’t part of your family or one of your friends. An advocate’s role includes arguing your case when you need them to, and making sure the correct procedures are followed by your health and social care services. Being independent means they are there to represent your wishes without giving their personal opinion and without representing the views of the NHS or the local authority. An advocate might help you access information you need or go with you to meetings or interviews in a supportive role. You may want your advocate to write letters on your behalf, or speak for you in situations where you don’t feel able to speak for yourself.
