Muanshe
Unit 1 Building positive relationships in health and social care
LO3 Understand how a person-centred approach
builds positive relationships in health, social care
or child care environments
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, Muanshe
Unit 1 Building positive relationships in health and social care
P3: Explain strategies to ensure a person-centred approach in
health, social care or child care environments
1. Understand individual’s needs and preferences
Working in a person- centred way is one of the fifteen fundamental standards of care that
the Care Quality Commission requires healthcare providers to meet 48. A person- centred
approach in health and social care is known as actively involving a patient in their care needs
so that they are not made to be passive when being taken care of; also giving them their
right to choice. Person- centred care is one approach to care work, organised to deliver
individualised, personalised care to service users, especially to the majority of the ageing
population who need assistance carrying out everyday tasks. This approach to care is one
that respects and values the uniqueness of a person receiving care. For workers to be able
to provide person centred care, they need to understand cherished care values such as:
supporting a patient’s rights to dignity, choice, and safety, promoting effective
communication and relationships, and providing individualised care 49.
Understanding individual needs in the health, social care and child care sector is a factor
crucial when it comes to working in a person- centred way. This is because all service users
have various preferences in the ways in which they want to have their care needs met. A
way to clearly understand the individual needs of service users is by going through their care
plans. Carers should meet initially with the individual before drawing up their care plan in
order to avoid stereotypes and also developing an ill- informed opinion before greeting
them. Care plans are documents (electronic or paper based) that provide direction on the
type of care a person is supposed to receive. A care plan also flows from each patient’s
unique list of diagnoses and is organized by the individual’s specific needs 50. All care
providers, such as nurseries or care homes keep one for each of the residents in their care.
A care plan should involve: what a person’s assessed needs are, information and advice on
how to effectively communicate with the individual, outcomes the person wishes or needs
to achieve, the person’s personal likes and dislikes, any disabilities they have, etc. Health
and social care settings keep these care plans in order to stay informed about the best ways
to provide personalised care when looking after the service users.
Below, shows a care plan for a primary school student with diabetes. The contents page
reveals how detailed an individualised care plan is. Since the primary school student has
additional health needs (diabetes), the care plan consists of how much insulin the child is
given a day, the specific times of when they are given the medication, what to do in case of
an emergency and their daily school routine51. Here, it is important for the student’s teacher
and carer to be familiar with the care plan because they need to be aware of the consistent
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https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/what-is-person-centred-care/
49
https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/Learning-and-development/Care-Certificate/Standard-5.pdf
50
https://www.rncentral.com/nursing-library/careplans/
51
https://www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/MDI-Care-Plan-11-09v2-4-
anonymous.pdf
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