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Unit 5 - Meeting Individual Care & Support Needs.
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Unit 5 - Meeting Individual Care & Support Needs. Coursework was awarded a distinction.
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UNIT 5Care Study 1: Valerie B. aged 24 years.
Valerie B. was admitted to the community hospital, following surgery for her appendix
which burst before she could reach hospital. Valerie has mental health problems which
began when her parents died when she was six years old. Valerie’s surgery was
complicated due to her being obese. She has low self-esteem and cannot see why she
needs to lose weight or change her lifestyle. Valerie lives in flat provided by a housing
association but has been bullied by local teenagers because of her obesity. Valerie’s
surgical wound is healing, but she does not want to go home because she is afraid that the
bullying will start again. She is unemployed and receives Universal benefit. Valerie has a
hearing impairment but has never been assessed for any support to improve her hearing.
Valerie is a vegetarian.
Case study 4: Billy G. aged 18 years.
Billy is homeless and was admitted to the community hospital by a passing paramedic
when he had an asthma attack in the street. The city hospital did not have beds and so a
place was found in the community hospital. Billy left home following an argument with his
mother’s partner, which resulted in a violent fight between Billy and the man. He has been
living on the streets since this incident. The weather is cold and damp which contributed
to the asthma attack. Billy has a visual impairment and finds street living difficult. He
cannot clearly read road signs or find his way around the city easily. Billy has complained
about stomach pains since being admitted to hospital, which could be due to him living
mainly on food from rubbish bins, thrown out by local restaurants. Billy cannot go back
home from hospital, because his mother has changed the locks and has refused to visit
him.
The importance of promoting equality and diversity and the impact of preventing
discrimination.
Equality: Everyone in the care setting is given equal opportunities, regardless of their
background, abilities, or lifestyle. This also means ensuring everyone in the setting have
equal opportunities, regardless of their abilities, background, or lifestyle, as said by the
Government Equalities Office (2015). It’s important that equality is promoted because then
Billy gets the appropriate help that others get and it’s important, they treat him equally
regardless of his visual impairment and his housing situation.
Diversity: It’s about recognising and valuing differences through inclusion, regardless of age,
gender, ethnicity, socioeconomics and/or cultural backgrounds. NICE (2022) stated everyone
should get the opportunity for care while having their circumstances taken into
consideration. It’s important that health and social care professionals are aware of diversity
because it can improve the quality of care to the service user because diversity promotes
inclusivity as well as it demands sensitivity towards other people’s situation.
Discrimination: EOC (2024) shared that discrimination is the unfair/prejudicial treatment of a
person due to their race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or any of the other protected
characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act. Discrimination in the healthcare setting could be
negative actions or lack of consideration towards an individual or group of individuals that
,happens because of preconceived and unjustified opinion. For example, doctors can’t refuse
treatment to someone based on the doctors’ prejudice against them.
Different types of discrimination:
- Unfair discrimination
- Positive discrimination
- Indirect discrimination
- Direct discrimination
Unfair Discrimination: when someone is treated unjustly compared to someone else.
Positive Discrimination: when someone has something done in their favour because they’re
different.
Indirect Discrimination: when there’s a rule that applies to all service users but negatively
impact specific people.
Direct Discrimination: when someone is treated badly for a specific reason.
In the first case study Valerie might face direct discrimination due to her hearing
impairment, staff might not be as efficient communicating with her like other patients due to
bias of her condition. The staff might have overlooked her hearing impairment because of
her obesity therefore it shows what happens when service users don’t get the appropriate
care they need, things like missed diagnosis can happen. In this scenario the best way to
move forward is to get Valerie an advocate and make a treatment plan for her hearing
impairment whether that a hearing aid or perhaps surgery if available. Furthermore,
perhaps the council can figure out another living arrangement as Valerie doesn’t feel safe in
the own home due to the continuous bullying she endures. However, another way to get
Valerie’s self-esteem up is for health and social care professionals to empower her. Valerie
has pre-existing mental health issues, being discriminated against would influence Valerie
more and make her feel powerless. It’s essential to avoid discrimination as she is bullied in
her own home in case, she doesn’t have any place to go where she feels secure, this will
create more serious mental health issues such as discouragement. This will influence Valerie
in the long term, she may not have anybody to speak to or go to and will not be able to
believe others; gradually isolating herself against.
In the second case study Billy might face discrimination due to his visual impairment, once
again the individuals’ disability puts them at a disadvantage in a health and social care
setting if health care professionals don’t follow duty of care. Staff should provide Billy with
equal opportunities as other around him to ensure they are holding up his human rights. In
the case it’s essential that they provide him with support to recover from the potential food
poisoning and help him through his visual impairment. In addition, the council should also
be able to give in a temporary house to stay in while he deals with everything from recovery
both physical and with him mental health. He will require the staff to apply one or more of
the 6C'S when managing with Billy. For example, he will require sympathy and compassion in
how he feels around himself and his circumstance; the staff working with him will need to
put themselves in his shoes. To guarantee Billy isn't getting any form of discrimination the
code of conduct is put in place. The code of conduct is used by organisations – like the NHS -
to guarantee that Billy keeps up his wellbeing when he is not in their care and guarantee he
is looked after.
, It is important to ensure that no one is discriminated against. This is because it helps protect
rights and well-being because everyone deserves the same rights and opportunities.
Providing opportunities for people is as simple as assistance or accessibility (like ramps) to
people with disabilities. Practicing non-discrimination protects the dignity of all people
regardless of their circumstances. The Equality Act (2010) stops individuals from experience
discrimination targeted by their 9 protected characteristics, one way of promoting anti-
discriminatory for Valerie would be by telling her what to do at home to manage her diet
and exercise as she does not want to go to a dietician, this can motivate Valeria to change
and help her understand more about what kind of consequence she might face if she
continues to have bad eating coping skills. Another way to help Valerie is by her nurse to
refer her to a nutritionist and break her into it slowly to make sure she is comfortable and
it’s not doing more harm than help. Perhaps the reason Valerie struggles to receive help or
understand the severity of her situation is because she didn’t have much help or positive
influences as both her parents died at a very young age, and she might not have a support
system she could trust in hence the apprehensiveness of accepting help and her being
reluctant to trust people around her. Billy's nurses can be successful in promoting
discrimination because the acknowledge that Billy has a right to live according to human
rights laws which his life is protected by the law, even though he is homeless. They then can
help guide him to get support from the local council to find if her can have
temporary/emergency housing. The nurses might refer Billy to an organization that deals
with homelessness or doctors can relief him from more stress by reaching out to local
groups who deal with people visually impaired and/or homeless to make him aware that he
has support around him and make sure he knows that he’s not alone.
It is important to avoid discrimination against service users as it can cause serious and lasting
harm to anyone. In Valerie’s case if she experienced any discrimination if can drastically
impact her mental health even more as she already suffers with low self-esteem due to the
bullying she had to endure by her neighbours because of this Valerie has really withdrawn
from society to the point where she doesn’t even have a job and if healthcare professions
discriminate against her, see might be anxious that her employer will too making her even
more reluctant to go to work. Therefore, maybe getting an advocate for Valerie would make
her feel more safe knowing that her voice is being heard and that she is not going to be
discriminated against because there is someone is her corner defending her.
In Billy’s situation if he is discriminated against because he is homeless/disabled, it affects
him mentally and might stop him from reaching out and asking for help. Billy got a lot of
support because he was homeless, as a healthcare professional you need to give him the
right information and resources to help him overcome his situation, and because of Billy's
conflicts with his mother and her partner, his self-esteem and mental health was very low
and he might need a therapist or someone to speak too to make sure he does not suffer in
silence and end up going into bad coping styles. Policies and procedures such as duty of care
ensures that Billy nor Valerie are not subject to any form of discrimination. Training in Anti-
discriminatory practices will ensure that all staff understand the standards expected of them
when delivering care to all service users. Discrimination can impact someone’s mental health
especially if they’re in vulnerable situations like Billy and Valerie therefore Acas (2023)
believes that mentoring and making sure people are well educated on how to challenge and
prevent discrimination especially in health and social care is vital to keep people safe. By
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