Task One “Using anonymised case materials from your work placement demonstrate an understanding of how principles of support are implemented and show an understanding of the theories that underpin health & social care practice.”

The term principle of support means to me the values and principles we use. A value is something that is worthy and that all individuals have the right to have their own values. All individuals should have respect for the persons values whoever he or she may be and whatever state of mind that they may have. It is also about the beliefs about what is important to you as an individual, and what you believe about what is morally right and wrong. A principle is when you put into practice the values you hold. For example where we look at the value of being non judgmental we mean where an individual takes a person for who they are without any judgments. These are based on principles or basic guidelines about the right way to behave for example; you treat people with respect because you believe that is the right thing to do.

In my work place I work with both young adults and elderly adults. One of my clients has an illness called Multiple sclerosis otherwise known as MS. Client A is a sixty eight year old female. The illness client A has is a neurological condition which affects around 100,000 people in the UK. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20-40, but it can affect younger and older people too and almost twice as many women have MS as men.

To understand what happens in MS, it's useful to understand how the central nervous system works. A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibers in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body. In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, it mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibers, either partially or completely, leaving scars known as lesions or plaques. This damage disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibers – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all. As well as myelin loss, there can also sometimes be damage to the actual nerve fibers. It is this nerve damage that causes the accumulation of disability that can occur over time.

Client A, who I care for in her own home, has had to adapt to this awful illness over the years. Not all clients with MS lose the power of their legs but from I’ve been caring for client A she has never been able to walk. I feel that this client has had to deal with major issues in her life and therefore this is why I choose her for my assignment. Client A has been in a wheelchair from I have cared for her. Client A has always been in the care of my agency and a recent change of carers made client A feel discriminated against. Client A felt that she had had the same carers for at least ten years and she was both sad and angry they were been taken of her and moved. Client A fought for her right and although during this time it affected her greatly. She has known those carers, and got to trust them and they knew her very well she didn’t want anyone else coming into her home. Client A was able to put this all forward to her care manager, although this may be a very simple thing to me and you it meant a lot of client A both physically and mentally.

As previously stated Client A has an illness called MS she needs two carers on daily basis four times a day. Client A has a catheter put in place as she can no longer walk, the catheter makes it easy to go to the toilet when no one is there to help. Up until recently Client A also has a peg tube placed in her stomach, this is to help feed client A as she has lost her swallow. Client A gets fed on a nightly basis through the peg tube and is feed from 7pm-7am and her medication is also distributed through her peg tube. Her carers then come in at 7am unhook the peg