What do we really mean when we say person centred care.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
(This is all my own views and links are included in the blog please get professional advice on your situation)
What is person-centered care in the disability approach?
So we need to start out by saying that there are several approaches
to disability care and they have very different world views attached to them,
the first one is the medical model of disability that says that we are broken
and that we should be cured and that then we can contribute to the world.
The second one is the social model of disability which says
that it is the society that disables us and that we need to be aware of this
and that by fixing some things in society the disability will have less impact
and it also makes people aware that disability isn’t something to be feared it
is just a way of being, and that disability impacts people in very different
ways as well.
So this is where the person-centered approach comes from and
we see that this is an offshoot of the social model of disability and that this
is where we see that it is fundamentally different in peoples view’s in that if
the person has a care worker ( this term will vary from country to country) what
the person using the services are called is an issue and we see that they can
be called anything from – service user, to client to, people I support.
It also does use evidence-based approaches to disability support
and this supports the person first and puts the person first as well and then
they understand what is happening as well.
As well as working with the person vs doing it for the person and de-skilling
them in a way.
It does really depend on the client’s age and abilities and the
caregiver’s approach and sometimes it is
a client and the relationship can be an issue as well. So we see that this can
be a big thing as well that the client needs to have a say in what they are
called in the conversation when the person is present as well.
We also see that we need to be very aware of privacy issues as
well and that people need to be aware of
keeping a client's privacy. This is something that I have done a video on and
what is acceptable as well can be an issue, as there are times when a support
worker might need to break privacy as well. [i]
But it’s something that needs to be considered
in the context of disability where you might also be breaching the support workers’
privacy as well.
So we know that this is an issue and that we need to be
aware of it as well, as a client you might have signed a service agreement that
states your responsibilities to the support workers as well, so this might be not talking about them in a
negative light to family and friends, I know mine have become a godsend to my family
in a very tough time in our families life as well and we see that this has it’s
own issues as well.
But it’s a tricky one as well, so what a client needs to be
aware of is that we might be breaching privacy as well in a way, so asking
permission to share what we did, asking permission to share on social media. Knowing what we can tell people. Generally, I
do find that if you ask the Support worker what they are comfortable with we
see that is the best approach.
Also respecting that they are paid to support you and to
work with you as well, so in saying that we see that working with them instead of
against them is a great idea as well, I know that sometimes I can work against them
while not realizing it and this creates issues as well.
So I can be hyper-excited as well and want to tell everyone but
have to hold back against it because it affects the person as well. Also being
honest about what difficulties you have is a great idea as well, and having a structure
in your day is great as well.
I will also do a post on what this looks like in reality as
well.
Comments
Post a Comment