The mental capacity act was stated in 2005 and its main aim is to try and give empowerment to the vulnerable people who are unable to make any decisions by themselves without people helping them. Within the act says who is able to make the decisions for them and it also allows people to people to plan ahead if one day in the future they would lose the mental capacity to make decisions. The people who are able to make their decisions on their behalf are family, doctors and social workers.
The children act in 1989 is legislation that gives children rights and can protect them from a great deal of harm. If children are in danger of being harmed, social services are able to get involved and if it is a serious matter, the courts can also intervene and ensure that the child’s rights are protected. The Children’s Act 2004 is a build on The Children Act 1989. It mainly focuses on a child’s needs and there are many groups that work together to help educate families and make sure that a child’s needs are put first. This legislation is important in order to protect young people under the age of 18 from serious harm. The Children Act states that children have the right to be protected from significant harm and schools must make sure that the children in their care are in no serious danger and their children feel safe and happy. The act tries to improve the lives of children by trying to cover the entire problem for example in schools have to check how they let in and out of school ground to make sure that no unauthorized person gets onto the premises and that no child leaves without any permission. The children act does not only focused on the main needs it also tries to help in other ways.
The age discrimination act was put in action is 2006 and it is about treating the elderly with the same rights that everyone else has because of this law it is illegal not to do so. So for example if two men wanted the same job and the older one was more qualified and better suited for it but the younger man got it because he was younger and was going to retire later the reason why the older man did not get the job was because of his age and that is discrimination or firing someone from their job because their close to retirement.
The human rights act is something that applies to everyone that is born in the UK and by law everyone has a right to be able have each of the different rights within the act some are for example the right to life, the freedom from slavery and forced labour, the right to a fair trial, the right to respect for private and family life, the freedom to express yourself, the right not to be discriminated against in respected of these rights and freedoms, the right to vote when over a certain age, the right to have an education
The health and social care act was started in 2008 and what it aims to do is make the public health and social care system better by providing measures that will try shrinking the amount of diseases that gets spread around and control it. The act also says that give money to pregnant women in order for them to be able to pay for a healthy lifestyle when they reach late pregnancy.
The codes of practice is a list of different laws and rules which was approved by the parliament in 2009 that state what people in work should do and should not do and which guides what is expected of them also the standard of their work. Confidentiality is something that doctors and carer have to do because it is against the law to give out there personal information. It protects the services users’ personal information from being seen or used by other people also the doctors or carer’s can’t talk about their personal information without the service users consent. It is not only doctors and cares it is also social workers has well but if someone broke the confidentially law then that can have a affect on the service user by them losing self esteem or they might trust the doctors, carers, social worker again as well as damaging their life an individual. In my placement they keep all of the service user’s personal data and records lock away only for the service user and staff to look at and to make changes to it also whenever someone has looked at it they have to sign it notifying that they have look at also all personal letter are looked away until the service user asks for them personally.
A policy is a set of principles that inform how they should act and behave in certain situations and the person following the policies will have to meet requirement for example confidentiality or safety. Procedures is when someone does a sequence of things that must be done in a certain way for example a doctor has to do his medical check up in a certain way to get the proper results.
The nursing and midwifery council code of conduct is rules that they have to tell the patient the truth and to do their top standard of work also they must also treat all the patients’ equality and respecting their dignity and personal space. They also have to work with other professional and the patient’s family in order to provide the best health and wellbeing for them and if they make a mistake then they are to be held accountable for their actions. If they do not follow the codes of conduct then they will be penalize and they might lose their job. The nurses and midwives also have to keep confidentiality which means that they have to only share the information with people who need to know it for example doctors and if the information is going to cause any harm to anyone then they will have to involve the law. The nurses and midwives cannot discriminate against anyone they must help then access the right health and social care support. They also have to listen to what the patient has to say and support then with keeping themselves at the best standard of health also if the patient has problems communication they must arrange a way for them to communicate properly. The nurses and midwives will need to get consent from heir patient before perform any treatment and if the patient does not want it then they have to respect their choice. If they patient are covered by the mental capacity then they would have to choices for them.
The effects that discriminatory practice has on elderly people in a care home is that if they are unable to make their own choices for example if the carers did not give an elderly person a chance to say and do what they want to do and this could be not being able to pick the cloth that they want to wear or what they want to eat for dinner and this is called disempowerment and this could make the elderly person feel helpless to control their own life’s as well as them losing their self-esteem which can result in them developing a bad self image. Another effect of discriminatory practice is that a patient in a hospital being looked after by nurses could be getting negative for example if the nurse was not giving the patient the right amount of are that he or she needed and this could lead to the patient become coming sicker and the effect it could have on them is that they might become aggressive towards the people around them also they might feel as if they do not deserve the care that are meant to be getting which could result in low self-worth. In a supported living establishment for adults with mental and learning disabilities the staff may make the service users feel Marginalisation which for example one of the adult may need a lot more assistance and take up more time to help with looking after themselves and the carers and social worker might leave them out of activities and other things for example the service users may some support getting into town to buy the things that they might need and that could affect them becoming lonely and feeling isolated from everyone else and that will affect their self-esteem which could then have an impact on their health because they not to accept the little help given to them.
Within every health and social care setting they should be trying to be putting a stop to discrimination and discriminatory practice and promoting anti-discrimination they will do this by educating the staff that work within the setting and the service users that get assisted there for example by giving them an understanding of different cultures and religions. The health and social care setting will also promote anti-discrimination by making policies that would say that everyone has to be treated equal service users and staff and if not followed they would be action taken to put a stop to it.
Codes of practices are rules and guidelines that all of the staff in any health and social care setting has to follow. There are different codes of practice and they are things like our care our say which is when the service users are given a say in what standard of care that they are given and they will also have a choices in what type of treatment they want so for example an elderly resident will be able to choice which carer they will get their care from. Another thing is that the service users will also be able to make their voices heard because a part of the code of conduct it says that they can arrange a meeting with their key worker and the manager of the home to discuss have their care can be improved.
Valuing people is a government plan which is about trying to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities and also helping the whole family as well. The valuing people plan looks at all different parts of life that supports the person with their disability and their families also. Like with helping them to get try and find the right kind of treatment needed by giving them referrals to different health specialist. The valuing people strategy will also help by trying to help people with learning disabilities to live the most independently have they possibly can so for example if they are capable of living by themselves then they will try and find home for them.
Person centred planning is about supporting and giving the service user privacy and dignity and that will be done by the carers building their care plan around the service users like and dislikes. Another thing that person centred planning does it try to promote the services users independence. The main part of the person centred planning is about giving the service user has much choices as possible so for example like choosing the kind of diet that they have and also what kind of lifestyle that they lead but the carers or social workers will try and help encourage them to live a healthy lifestyle. The information inside the support plan would be looked at a couple times a year to see whether or not the service users needs have changed at all also the service user’s care plan is a confidential documents that can only be viewed by members of staff.
References
Health and social care level 3 BTEC nationals series editor: Beryl Stretch