1:1 Explain Person Centred Practice
Person centred practice is about placing a person at the centre of their own care. It is about making their care and treatment plan personalised to them and their needs.
It is important that you get to know a service user well. This can be done by finding out their interests, their past and preferences. Staff need to build a good rapport with service users. This is essential in being able to provide appropriate and meaningful care to them.
In Person Centred care we have to make sure the service user is treated as an equal and to ensure their needs are valued as important and to be respected. Not every decision a service user makes all health care workers will agree with or think is in their best interests but we have to take into consideration their wishes and plan appropriate care. In several cases this means guiding someone from a decision in which a care worker feels isn’t appropriate and could harm them, to guiding and advising them of a better suited decision for them. This doesn’t mean ruling out their wishes however in the best interest of the service user we still have a duty of care to keep them safe and protected at all times. In many cases this could mean compromising on both parties, being the service user and healthcare worker, and coming to a decision they both agree on and that is acceptable to the person and the health care workers.
When we are giving care in a Person Centred Way we need to consider the effect of what we are doing on the whole person, which means compromise. For instance, if a patient is refusing to attend to their personal hygiene in a bathroom, a health care worker may need to compromise and agree a wash from a basin is sufficient. This way you are still making sure their everyday needs are being met but they have still had an input in the decision being made.
In person centred practice you need to place a service user at the heart of all decisions involving their care. Each service user needs to be seen as an individual with preferences and rights. By placing a service user at the heart of their care they are more likely to engage in treatment and care decisions due to feeling supported.
In my line of work I have to make sure I continually use person centred practice, the way in which I care for an individual can differ depending on the service user and their needs. Some may need more intensive support than others. I have to make sure my team and not categorising everyone as the same but are being able to recognise each service user has different needs. I also need to guide them on appropriate ways to manage a service user in a person centred way.
Service users can be different in many ways and have different needs, some more complex than others. In my line of work when a service user moves in the first port of call is to establish which type of care they need. Once this has been identified a firm care plan can be put into practice which will be made and discussed with the service