When to breach privacy and how to do it safely for a client's safety
Disclaimer – That these are my own lived experiences and understanding from the research that I do around the NDIS and health-related topics please be aware that it is informational only and not to be used as a substitute for professional advice or working with a Planner, Disability Advocacy service or talking to your Medical and Allied Health team.
This is a real interesting topic, and we see that it's one that we need to be aware of as their is very
specific widow of what is tolerated in breaching someone’s privacy so you
need to know firstly How to do it? Why you would need to do it and How to
tell the client that you needed to tell someone that their privacy has been
breached.
It is a very specific
thing to do as every person has the right to privacy but direct support workers
need to be very situationally aware and this is something that I found gets forgotten
about is a client’s right to privacy. However, there is sometimes when
it's in the interest of the client to have their privacy breached.
I find it to be interesting that direct support workers feel it is ok to
- Talk about a client in front of another client, and often talk about that client in a degrading or demeaning way in a Supported independent living situation this is when resentment can build as if a person doesn't have the capacity to understand that a person might need help we see that this can become an issue due to the person feeling unheard or unhappy and not feeling like they can speak up about it due to systemic staff shortages and undertrained staff.
- That it's ok to talk about
their clients in public even when swapping out the names of the clients to
keep to privacy but this is still a breach of privacy and often a support
worker won't realize that they are doing some of these things.
- To do a handover in
front of a client or other support workers often involving them in what
doesn't concern them and this can be an issue if the client doesn't have boundaries
or understand that this is private information as they will possibly tell
family and friends about this situation.
So this is where
disability and privacy become tricky in that people often new to the industry
are very used to dictating what a person needs to do, and this is going to be a
long change to "person cantered practice, as person cantered practice is
what the NDIS is based on, that the person not providers are in charge,
while I understand that their is times when this isn't practical or in the best
interests of the person we need to remember that they are a whole person and
that it might be time to involve their family and friends in their care.
This is one of the
very few reasons to breach privacy so when a person is going to be a danger to
themselves or others. So this is very limited in a disability perspective. So
it is very similar to health care in that if a person is at risk the support
worker or the organization has a duty of care to this person to provide a safe environment
and that also means emotionally safe as well.
So if a person is a
danger to themselves this is where a support worker needs to call someone to
let them know that a person is at risk or a risk to others what this means will
differ from person to person and we see that this is where support workers need
to make judgment calls around if the person is " acting," out for
attention as they have been trained to behave this way or it's the only way
they know to get attention, so this is where positive behavior plans and restrictive
practice really do have a place in a persons life and using them when trained
to use them when working with a person. As they are a usage of last resort
and something that needs be used with extreme care and training
As well as using
active and not passive support as passive support isn't great for anyone and
can lead to support worker burnout due to not knowing how to work with "difficult,"
clients often it's not that the client is difficult it's that they haven't been
given the dignity that they deserve. This dignity having respect for
their belongings, dreams, and body Autonomy,[i] to the best of their
capacity.
This lack of Autonomy
is basically when a client has no say in what they do and when or who helps
them with daily hygiene tasks and this can be an issue as it could lead to a further
perception of a support worker thinking that this person has challenging and difficult
behaviours due to the fact that the person has no say in who helps them and
this can be a difficult feeling to manage as it reminds the person that they
can’t do it for themselves.
Or they aren’t given
the right level of support that a person is classified to have and we see that
this is an issue, due to either funding or having support workers that don't
want to put the time and energy into getting past the "difficult and
challenging behavior’s" to understand the person and their life.
Also when support
worker is doing their notes we see that this can be an issue as well because
they often are doing their notes on their phone and who has access to their
phone as we have seen that a phone or an app could be easily hacked and this information
uploaded to the dark web, but if could be read by a person who shouldn't have
access to it as well if a person leaves a phone unlocked and unattended.
If they are still on a shift or doing a handover
and have to leave their device we see that if they are in a SIL house we see
that a client could read the phone, or even the person’s family or friends.
We also need to be aware
that if a SIL house needs to have paper forms these should be locked away if
the house rules state that the clients are allowed to receive guest’s in the
house, and they should be allowed some level of privacy with these guests. Each
facility would have rules around visitors
and it might be a blanket rule or dependent on the clients, families’ wishes.
Now I have covered how
to breach privacy the wrong way, and when can a support worker breach privacy
in a safe and legal way. I mentioned the
duty of care and this is something that is at play here in a massive way so the
support worker needs to decide if this is something that the client would actually
do or if the person is simply attention-seeking.
But put simply we
need it to be that a person is either going to be a danger to themselves or
others So the facility or the organization
would have a framework or list of what to do, before calling someone to help
and this is often called de escalation and this is where a person is sat down
in a safe place and helped to problem solve, this being a really great example
of active support as support can be emotional support and this is an example of
emotional support in a way that isn’t demeaning to the client.
However, if this
doesn’t work the client often and this would depend on the facility would be
removed from the situation and this is where a facility would need confirmation
that a restrictive practice is being used. As it would need to be documented, and
authorized in a way that fits the providers
ethics and the support workers skill set.
Comments
Post a Comment