Influences On Self Concepts And Care Needs At Different Life Stages

Influences On Self Concepts And Care Needs At Different Life Stages.

By Bernadette Magdziarek.

Case Study Miss Linda Green.

Mrs Linda Green was born in 1962. Her upbringing was different from her friends as she never really spent any time with her family like other people did. Her family never had much money just enough for basic living, food and bills. Her family never went on holidays or further than the shops. Her mother and father lived on a farm and spent most of their time outside with animals. She never socialised with people from school, and this made her shy to people she met. She started to suffer with health problems which doctors put down to her growing so fast, so through her teenage years at school she found it difficult to interact in sports and other physical activities. Her teenage years were spent at her grandmother’s home as she lost her parents before she was thirteen. Linda Green was bullied by the time she reached high school as her body develop slower than others. She sat inside her bedroom reading books until she met her teenage lover, whom she married. Mrs Linda Green never got any qualifications at school so worked in the local fish and chip shop. Mrs Linda Green is now 29 year old lady who lived with her husband of 10 years. She met her husband in high school at 14 years old and has been with him ever since. They married when Linda was 19 years old, and a year later her grandmother died. She and her husband have their own home which they bought together in a nice, quite neighbourhood. Mr Green gave up his business as a kitchen fitter to care for his wife for the last 5 years, after they found out she had multiple sclerosis. She recently lost her husband, who died after he had a crash on the motorway. Linda gave up her job working in the local chip shop, although she had been off sick for the past 12 months while she was in pain and waiting for tests to be done. She had put on weight which made walking nearly impossible, her heart and lungs were damaged by the weight gain.

Linda carried on for a year or so on her own as she still wanted independence and did not want the hassle of somebody she did not know caring for her. After another year, Linda was unable to care for herself in the house, and had to sell it as she could no longer afford the house or physically manage the maintenance of it. Linda was struggling financially and physically due to her not having anybody to care for her or any money coming in. She moved into a flat onto a council estate near a few friends, but these friends would only visit once a month or so if they had time after working and looking after their families.

Linda cannot reach some of the work surfaces in the flat as they are high up, which means cleaning does not get done in places she cannot reach. The flat she lives in has become dusty and dirty in most places since she has been in a wheelchair. Linda very rarely eats a proper meal as cooking is nearly impossible as she gets tired easily and household items can often be too heavy for her to lift. She does not go out very often, and if and when she does it is only to the shop and back as she ...

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As the weeks go by Linda is feeling more depressed and anxious about what is going to happen in the future, especially now the winter months are coming and she knows her condition feels worse sometimes in winter. With nobody around to help her, Linda does not know were to turn or who to turn to. She worries that if she has an accident who will be there for her.

Mrs Linda Green had problems growing up as a child, socialisation, family, income, education, and emotional health and well-being.

How Factors Influence Self-Concept

Mrs Linda Green had many problems growing up as a child. Her family never let her socialise with other people, and in her family she never socialised with her parents or relatives. Socialising is very important in early childhood especially with family and close relatives, as this helps children later in life. This helps them develop their skills to talk to others and not to make assumptions about people just by looking at them. Kids development (Accessed 08/05/09).

Family life was different from others, her family never bothered with other family members. Just a few people actually can on the farm and spoke to the family, they traded produce and animals. It is important to bond with family and relatives as can make friendship with others easier, a friendly atmosphere with workers and confidence in yourself when talking to other people. Asbridge et al 2008.

Being brought up in a family with no income is hard to deal with as a child growing up, as they have no understanding until they reach adolescence stage. As she grew in a family with income this made it hard to buy things she wanted. As she was raised in a family with no money this made it harder for her to get a higher education. This usually continues through the generations of the family.

Asbridge et al 2008.

Education is important when growing up in life, as you grow in life you need to earn a living to afford to live, pay bills, feed you and your family and support your family. As she grew up she never had a good education as her family could not afford it, which then affects her life as she gets older as she will not be able to get a good job without a higher education. Asbridge et al 2008.

Poor physical health and can affect your life and your mental state of mind. As Mrs Linda Green grew up she was not as active as others, causing long terms illnesses and disabilities. When she was a young child, her parents never paid her much attention this has had a big affect on her health, her parents never encouraged physical activities to her and when they did speak to her it was to tell her that she was putting on weight. Asbridge et al 2008.

These factors are all important to Mrs Linda Green because if she does not have them she can not progress in life.

Care Needs At Life Stages.

0 - 3 years old.

Physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs – she was a normal baby who was looked after by mainly her mother. She was kept warm and had a home to live in. Although her parents never made much contact with her or talked to her, she was in a safe environment. Due to the lack of physical interaction with her parents she found general activities such as learning to crawl, walk and talk very hard. Her intellectual skills were also kept behind as her parents never spent anytime showing her new tasks and skills. She did not have a loving relationship with her parents because they never spent time bonding from the moment she was born. This makes it harder for her to show any emotions towards people as she does not really understand the reasons for doing it, as she did not get them. Her family have not socialised with others which means that not many people have been in her life.

4 - 10 years old.

Physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs – Linda Green was growing like all children of her age, having regular meals often easy unhealthy meals, a home and clothes. Starting school was very hard for Linda Green as she never really spent time with more than two people and these were her parents. As she did not really socialise with many people she found this very hard to socialise with friends at school and usually found herself left out. Sport and other activities were hard for her especially if she had to join in with groups. She found herself emotionally upset when she came home from school as she was left out of things in school, because of this she spent most of her time in her bedroom reading books. Intellectually she was struggling to do homework and other tasks as she found it hard to talk to people to ask for help. This was due to her parents who spent very little time with her.

11 – 18 years old.

Physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs - As Linda Green hit puberty she had to become more reliant to herself as she had just lost her parents. Linda’s development was very slow, and she began to get bullied because of this. She started to struggle when taking exams as she had never asked for help. Intellectually she found everything hard, and because she became ill could not even do sports. She missed classes because of bullying which made it hard for her to catch up on work. Socially the only person she had was her grandmother who was disabled, until she met her boyfriend. She had emotional feels for her boyfriend who showed her how to show some of her emotions, giving her more confidence into confiding in him.

Adulthood 18 onwards.

Physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs – physically Linda Green’s needs started to get better as she reached 20 she married and had a nice home with her partner. She had got herself a job interacting with many people on a day to day basis, and started to go out with a few friends she had met through her husband. When she became seriously ill with multiple sclerosis she became depressed and emotional most of the time. Socialising became difficult for Linda Green as she was in a wheel chair, and she gave up work her intellectual skills dropped. After losing her husband she became worse she gave up her home to a council property, getting foods became hard as she found it difficult to get out. Socialising was almost non-existent as she lost contact with friends when her husband died and when she moved home. Intellectually she never did anything to keep her brain active and working. She was very depressed and unable to cope alone.

Old age 64 +.

Physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs - If Linda Green was to carry her life on in this way, physically she would have nothing in life as she cannot manage to do daily activities like, shopping for food, afford bills and clothes. Intellectually her abilities will slow down dramatically. She will lose the ability to control her emotions and may forget things that could be important. If she carries on living the way she is, she will have nobody to socialise with. Emotionally she is depressed and this depression will only get worse the older she gets. She will start to lose all of her self-esteem and self-confidence, or even become helpless or vulnerable to abuse.

Recognition of diversity

Each person should have their needs taken into account at all times and they should always be treated as an individual. Their ethnic, religious and social groups need to be valued just as much as they are as a person. By doing understanding a service user’s needs makes them have confidence in the care worker, it also builds their self-esteem.

Active support

Service users are very vulnerable, and it is very important they get the support they need from care workers. It helps if the care worker knows briefly about the service user’s background and beliefs. Care workers will not only offer emotional support but will help by liaising with others to acquire appropriate support.

The sheltered housing network (Accessed 02/05/2009).

Promotion of independence