Use Different Means of Communication to Meet Different Needs

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Meeting an individual’s communication needs is really important if you want to develop a good working relationship with them. It is essential that the people you support trust you as you are working very closely with them. To provide person centred care you need to be able to find out their individual’s needs; wishes and preferences and to do this you need to be able to communicate. You have a duty to work out how to improve or overcome communication barriers, and if they are not resolved then there is a risk that you will cross boundaries, provide care that the person doesn’t like. Everyone has a right to dignity, respect and choice and we need to be able to meet their communication needs in order to provide this. In my job role I’m constantly adapting the way that I communicate to meet people’s specific needs and making use of a lot of different forms of communication in order to find out people’s prefences and care for people in ways they wish to be cared for. I have learnt that it is really important for me to watch people’s reactions and body language when Iam communicating with them because quite often it helps me ascertain how they are feeling and highlights when there may be a problem or they are unhappy with something. Features of the environment that may help or hinder communication may be: • Sensory impairment, for example deafness, blindness or both. • Culture, for example languages or strong accents. • Religion, for example men not permitted to help women with personal care. • Health care issues, for example mental ill health such as schizophrenia. • Emotions, for example low self-esteem or difficulty listening to others. • Background noise, for example the radio or television. • Specialist communication techniques, for example sign language. Someone may use a form of communication that is not based on a formal language system for a number

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