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Care Planning – Encouraging participation
Clients and/or their relatives and friends should have a full part to play in the care planning process.This could mean becoming involved in meetings either at the actual meeting or in the preparations for it.
Part of your role is to encourage clients and those close to them to play an active part.
A first step may be to give them basic information about things such as:
[1] Why your organisation is having the meeting
[1] Where and when the meeting will take place
[1] Whether transport will be needed for the client to get to the meeting
[1] Who will attend the meeting?
[1] Why the different people are there
[1] How the client should present their views
[1] What will happen when the client and relative/or friend arrive
[1] What they will be asked to say or do
[1] What happens if they decide to say nothing?
Before any meeting that will discuss your client, you need to:
[1] Make sure everyone involved is aware of the clients needs and wishes
[1] Circulate any written reports well in advance
[1] What they can do if they disagree with whats being said
[1] How long the meeting might take
[1] What happens at the end?
You need a working knowledge of confidentiality policies and the laws that may affect your role in obtaining information about clients. These include laws such as the Children Act, the Data Protection Act and the Disabled Persons Act.
What do you know about the laws affecting clients you work with?
How much do you know about the laws that affect your clients? Try to find out the main effects of the Acts mentioned in the Key Point above or any others that are relevant to your area of work.
Look in particular at:
* Understanding the clients right to assessment
* The types of information you are allowed to collect, store or access
* Your role in obtaining information.
You may find that your local library has summaries of relevant Acts.
The organisation you work for may well have prepared its own summaries for the benefit of staff.
Make sure you take a copy of any information you find. Refer to it on a regular basis. You must ensure that you are not making or storing notes about clients who break the Data Protection Act. You must also make sure you are aware of your clients rights and your responsibilities towards them. Collecting information from others is a delicate task. On one hand you dont want to give third parties too much information about your client. But on the other hand you need to give them enough so that they understand why you are asking them for information. Information given by another person about a clients care needs and problems should not be passed on without the consent of the person who provided you with the information, or the consent of the client.
Records summarising the clients needs
Most people find that they obtain a lot of information when they try to learn about an individuals or familys problems and needs.
Some of the information is factual, e.g. names, addresses, age, and so on. This is called objective information.
Other pieces of information might be based on peoples opinion, e.g. The answer to my mums problem is day care. She just gets lonely and depressed on her own. This sort of information is subjective.
Information about peoples problems and needs can be obtained through observation, too. If the information you receive gives out mixed messages about the client, think why this might be so could it have something to do with where the information came from?
Some people may find it hard to be entirely objective about a clients needs. The son or daughter quoted above may be finding it hard to accept the extent of their mothers needs. They may be denying how ill the parent is, because it is too painful to accept. You need to check their opinion against that of someone less involved like a health professional.
Checking out what people say and reaching agreements
Building up a good picture about an individual is an essential part of any assessment. It is often a good idea to reflect back to clients what they have said. The point of this is to check that you have understood them.
Here is an example of reflecting.
Client: I feel so much better now. I think I can manage by myself. I can do everything I need to do it just takes time. The thing is Ive got plenty of time. I think Id prefer it really. At least while I can.
Worker: Im glad youre feeling much better now. It sounds as though youd prefer not to have a home help for the moment. You think you can manage on your own. Is that right?
People who are vulnerable need to know that their needs have been noticed and understood.
Below is a checklist of things you should ask yourself whenever you obtain information from a client about a service they might require.
You may find it useful to read through this list both before and after any interview or chat with a client.
Checklist: collecting information
Have you obtained the correct factual information, e.g. their name, address, age?
Have you understood correctly what it is that they want help/support with?
Have you told them exactly why you need the information?
Have you talked to them about who you are going to share the information with and why?
Have you discussed what will happen next as a result of them giving you information about themselves?
Have you checked that the client is happy about the next steps?
Have you asked them if they want you to talk with anybody else about their needs and preferences?
Have you told them where the information will be recorded?
Have you checked that you correctly understand what the client has said?
