Care values
Care value base is to enable people to develop their full potential and is a range of standards for health and social care and is designed to guide professionals. The aim is to improve client’s quality of life, by ensuring that each person gets the care that is appropriate for them as an individual.
The care value base is widely used in care settings and has different levels to it, for example, organisation, legislation and the personal behaviour of care workers. Miller (1996) argued that behind the core value base are two key values. First one being “respect for the worth and dignity of every individual” and the second being “According social justice and promoting the health and social welfare of every individual” which basically means that everyone receives fair treatment in society.
The three main areas of care value base in health and social care are fostering equality and diversity, fostering people’s rights and responsibilities and maintaining confidentiality of information.
Care values are fundamental beliefs about the right of correct way of treating service users but care values can also be seen as moral rights. We all have human rights and legislation. Some laws created against discrimination are equal pay Act 1970, sex discrimination Act 1975, race relations Act 1976 and disability discrimination Act 1975. Legal rights are rights that are supported by the law, for example confidentiality which is used at a doctor’s surgery which prevents any information about you from getting out unless you are at risk of harm or at risk of harming others. Moral rights are things you have a right to expect in a health care setting but no law has been broken if you don’t get them, for example politeness from a doctors receptionist. Human rights are things all humans have a right to, for example a right to life, freedom from torture, slavery and abuse which mean not to be treated in an inhumane and degrading way.
Communicating in a non-stereotypical way is a care value and Communication is a key factor in a health and social care environment. Communication can also be viewed as not only what you say, but also the way you present yourself whilst saying it. Stereotyping is something that people do a lot and this is when someone judges someone by what they look like, their life background, religion, sex and more but sometimes we don’t actually take into account their own needs and skills but not only that but we don’t always understand what is right for them and their culture, making it hard to communicate effectively. In a health and social care environment we would need to be sure that we help them by not what we see but what we know and belief is right for them using our own initiative as well as facts to do what we can to help. Stereotyping can lead to poor communication which makes that person feel unvalued and discriminated. An example of stereotyping would be to assume that just because their a child doesn’t mean they are dumb and therefore should be treated with respect and told the truth while getting to the point but you would also need to realise their a child who don’t always know what complicated words mean so when communicating you should try to also speak to their level and comfort them.
Confidentiality in another care value and it is the protection of personal information. Confidentiality means keeping a client’s information between you and the client, and not telling others including co-workers, friends, family, etc. Confidentiality is important since it protects an individual’s amount of personal information that can be disclosed without consent. It occurs when a person’s discloses personal information and requires his/her privacy to be protected. Confidentiality can boost an individual’s trust in someone else and give them more confidence but if confidentiality is broken, it could make the person feel very embarrassed and angry because the person promised that they wouldn’t say anything however confidentiality can be broken in order to ensure the persons safety and the well-being of others around the individual. An example of confidentiality would be if a teenage girl went to the doctors about an abortion and she told them not to tell her parents then legally the doctor will not be able to tell anyone otherwise she can take them to court as it is in fact law to keep confidentiality.
Dignity is another care value and it is the state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect. Dignity is important because it makes people feel respected and confident. An example in hospitals to keep a patients dignity would be to close the curtains when dressing them and ensuring that no one can see them therefore they feel comfortable and respected but also by not making a fuss or drawing attention to them too much especially in front of other patients. Another would be if they had an accident in their bed, you would calmly tell them that it’s okay and discreetly help them change and to also clean their bed. You would need to allow the patients to have independence as well for example to feed those Selves (if possible) and to take care of their own personal hygiene. You could have difficulties demonstrating these as different cultures have different ideas of demonstrating dignity. Everyone's idea of dignity may vary therefore you may accidently do something that they consider undignified. As it’s hard to judge what makes a patient feel like they have dignity, even if you do help it may be something different that’s creating the lack of dignity. Even if you are aware of the patient’s interpretation on dignity this could conflict with your personal ideas. In this case it may be difficult to go against your own feelings in order to keep their dignity.
Empowerment, independence and choice are all connected but they are also another care value. Empowerment means to give power and authority especially by legal or official means and Independence means free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority. Choice is where an individual is able to make choices for themselves and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Independence or a sense of independence is important to people simply because it prevents them from struggling in life and learning to do most things on our own gives us more power and confidence to get to where we want in life. Personal empowerment is also just as important as people are more aware of themselves being a unique individual and that also builds up their confidence. You can apply these care values, for example, in a nursery or a care home and with empowerment, you can give people choices about what they wear, eat or/and do instead of dictating their day. With a child you can do a similar thing such as asking them what toys they want to play with and where like inside or outside. With independence, you can apply this to a child by letting them do up their own shoe laces or picking out their own book to read. In a care home, you can’t really give them that much independence as some have certain needs however you have to persuade them to do the right thing for example making them aware that they need to take their pills on their own for their own safety. The difficulties demonstrating empowerment and independence in a child care setting would be that you have to make sure you are not letting the child be in danger. For example, you wouldn’t be able to give the child too much independence if they are cooking because they might accidentally hurt themselves or others. Another difficulty is that giving a child too much choice may lead them to believe that everything is their choice and could therefore become very demanding.
Encouragement is a care value and it is the action of giving someone support, confidence and hope. It is important to use encouragement because it can make a person feel happier and assisted. Without encouragement, people may feel like their efforts are useless and It also helps build bonds and relationships. With encouragement people may feel confident which could enable people to perform better. If a child was to draw something, a positive complement could be paid to them by the use of vocals or body language to encourage and inspire them and by going into details about what you like in the drawing could make them appreciate their work more. Possible difficulties with encouragement could be that a child may not want to listen to someone’s thoughts and opinions and that could be due to a lack of respect. Another problem could be over encouragement which could mean that the child uses it to their advantage and in the wrong way, for example- if a child was to get encouraged regularly for the same thing and another wasn’t, the encouraged child could make the other child upset as he may not of been receiving the same attention. This would make him feel neglected. Another difficulty is from your own lack of skills and not knowing how to encourage them in the appropriate way.
Promoting self-esteem and value is also one of the many care values. Self-esteem is a care value that means confidence in one's own worth or abilities, meaning self-respect. Self-values are the opinions you have about yourself and the value you place on yourself. Everyone has self-esteem, and having healthy or positive self-esteem is really important in a health care setting and in everyday life. It can help people hold their head high and feel proud of themselves and what they can do, even when things don't seem to be going so well. Self-esteem gives you the courage to try new things and the power to believe in yourself. It’s equally as important to promote self-esteem to children as it is to senior citizens, as a child's initial self-esteem can determine their self-value for life and sometimes as people get older they can feel there self-worth go down and it’s important to make them feel valued in our society. Places this applies to are retirement homes as elderly people can feel less valued as they get older and also places like school when teenagers can often suffer from low self-esteem for loads of reasons such as body image and bullying. In hospitals people’s confidence can lower when they're hurt or ill.
Promoting well-being of an individual is also very important and it means the presence of positive conditions and attributes. Having a healthy well-being helps someone's life enjoyable and more positive, as it affects their emotions and behaviour, which influences their lifestyle. An example of this would be that a child with a positive life can achieve better in school. It's useful to start with the idea that overall wellbeing involves both the mind and the body. Feeling happy is a part of mental wellbeing but it is far from the whole. There is a deeper kind of wellbeing, which is about living in a way that is good for the individual and good for others around them. Feelings of contentment, enjoyment, confidence and engagement with the world are all a part of mental wellbeing. Self-esteem and self-confidence are, too. So is a feeling that you can do the things you want to do and so are good relationships, which bring joy to people and those around them. Mental wellbeing can take many different forms, but basically means feeling good and functioning well. A way to improve someone’s mental well-being is by connecting with them and building a good relationship, which is a role of a health and social professional.
Lastly is discrimination and we have many laws preventing this such as equal pay Act 1970, sex discrimination Act 1975, race relations Act 1976 and disability discrimination Act 1975. An example of discrimination is against disabled people. Some of the places where discrimination is illegal, is at work, when providing goods, facilities and services, when renting or buying property or in education. There are some important areas where it is not against the law to discriminate against disabled people, for example, in access to public transport services. Discrimination can either be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination is where you are treated less favourably because of your disability than someone without a disability would be treated in the same circumstances. An example of this would be, a pub allows a family with a child who has cerebral palsy, which is the general term for a number of neurological conditions that affect movement and co-ordination, to drink in their beer garden but not in their family room. The family with the disabled child are not given the same choices that other families have. Indirect discrimination is where there is a rule, policy or practice which seems to apply equally to everyone, but which actually puts disabled people at an unfair disadvantage compared with people who aren't disabled. For example a local authority produces an information leaflet about its services for local people. It does not produce an easy-to-read version of the leaflet in order to save money. This would make it more difficult for someone with a learning disability to access the services and could amount to indirect discrimination. The only reason why it wouldn’t count as discrimination is if there could be a health and safety reason, or an unavoidable business reason. However there are other difficulties with this, for example money. A person with a wheelchair won’t be able to travel normally and will require special transport which can be expensive. In a health and social care environment, discrimination is not allowed just as much as anywhere else under those laws and therefore every individual should be treated with respect and equality.