Health and social Unit 1 - Effective Caring

• These are factors that affect quality of life.
• Some of these factors are physical - this means they affect the body directly
• Some of the factors are psychological - this means that they affect beliefs, behaviour and emotions.
• In a health & social care setting, care workers can help their clients by increasing the extent to which various life quality factors are present.

There are many different factors that can affect the quality of a person's life. Some of these factors can be provided by care workers.

• Pyschological security means the absence of fear or distressing anxiety. Patients and clients might feel insecure if the people they meet are threatening or bullying. Insecurity can also result from having a serious disease, because a patient might worry about the treatment they will be given, or the chances of dying soon.
• Social contact means having opportunites to be with other people. For many, isolation from others reduces their quality of life. This is because social contact provides social support & stimulation.
• 

• Social support means opportunities to be with familiar and trusted people who act in a person's own interest. Typically family members & friends provide each other with social support, but care workers allocated to clients can also provide this.
• Approval means being shown positive regard by others such as affection or praise. This benefits a person as it maintains self-esteem. The absence of this increases the risk that the person will develop negative feelings and cognitions about themselves. Clients in a health & social setting may feel like this as they may feel useless (having to rely on others) Approval is especially important in these cases.
• 

• Privacy means opportunities to be undisturbed or unobserved by others in situations likely to cause embarrassment. Key situations were privacy is important is dressing, **********, bathing and going to the toilet. Privacy can be hard to provide in a hospital setting - especially in the case of a person confined to their bed with other patients on the ward. 
• Dignity can be provided by showing a person respect and by the absence of demeaning treatment that could reduce a persons self esteem. Examples of demeaning treatment include: giving people orders instead of asking for their compliance.
• Confidentiality means preventing sensitive information about a client from being made public unnecessarily. Even a relative of a patient can be denied information, unless the patient wishes the relative to have it.

• Equitable treatment - to be treated equitably is to recieve treatment that might not be the same as the treatment of others, but is seen as fair, appropriate and not significantly better or worse. Equitable treatment is fair if it takes on the persons needs. Equitable treatment is the same as the absence of unfair discrimination.
• Effective communication enables people to access information they need. This means letting clients to find out, and have information on their treatment, giving clients coherent explanations of their condition & enabling clients to ask questions & reciever answers. Listening to a client is also part of effective communication.
• 

• Occupation means having something interesting or worthwhile to do. It can give people the feeling that their lives are worthwhile. It can also motivate them to act in ways that are adaptive (bring other benefits to them)
• Stimulation means the presence of events or activites that increase a persons arousal to a comfortable level making life interesting and challenging. Without stimulation a person will feel bored.
• Choice means having or being given the opportunity to make desesions about your situation.(What to have to eat) Choice gives people freedom.
• Autonomy means having effective control over your actions and being free from coercion (the practise of forcing someone to act in an involuntary manner)