K101: Health And Social Care Services

1373 Words6 Pages
Across the country, the quality of care and support that people receive can vary considerably. Care and support should not just be about making people comfortable but about helping them to fulfil their potential, whatever their circumstances. In this essay I will be discussing both the health, and social care services I have gained knowledge about from studying K101 Block 1, involving the experiences of Anwar Malik, Ann Walker, Angus McPhail and the company Somebody Cares. Anwar is a 54 year old Muslim living in the Midlands along with his wife and four children. Over a period of time, Anwar began to start feeling increasingly unwell and eventually went to seek advice and make use of a primary care service, his local GP. Anwar felt in an…show more content…
To be effective, health care needs to take account of the service user perspective. Regarding the social care services that are available and referring back to the Ann Walker case, they had to undergo a community care assessment when they asked for help. To help both the carer and the cared for, a package was put into place where they would receive a certain amount of help around the home which relieved the burden placed on Ann. To refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this package would allow Ann some respite care and therefore meet some of her higher-order needs. To help Angus make the most of his life and to make things easier for him, the package also meant they received aids and adaptions in their home, for example rails in the bathroom and a stairlift. The local authority decides who gets access to social care services which depend on their resources. The amount of home care people receive through these authorities has increased, indicating improvement for the carer and cared for however, the numbers of people who receive services has…show more content…
They would like more say in when carers came, what they did, duration, and poor timekeeping. Even though some users pay towards the costs via the commissioner, (i.e. the local authority), it is the agency who determine the rotas and tasks. There is a way the roles could be reversed so that the service user was put in charge. Direct Payments (DP) is a model which gives the user the money to spend on meeting their assessed needs. DP is intended to promote independence, choice and inclusion…to give recipients control over their own life by providing an alternative to social care services provided by a local authority (DH, 2003, pp. 3-4). The Community Care Act 1996 made DP schemes a reality in 1997. Feedback from users indicated a broad range of beneficial outcomes, including improved self-esteem, increased control over their lives, deeper and more lasting relationships, and new interpersonal, vocational and lifestyle opportunities (p. 65 The
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