The Human Rights Act

Amy has dementia and lives in a residential home. In the mornings Amy has always been able to get out of bed and get dressed with some minimal support and then walk independently down to the dining area where she has chosen to have breakfast. Over the past week Amy has been staying in bed longer and longer; she is reluctant to get up in the morning and does not do very much for herself when getting dressed. Her mobility has reduced also and she has started to get pressure sores. Amy’s appetite has also become very poor and she usually only eats a few spoonful’s of her food. When carers encourage her to eat more she refuses.

The human rights act is there to protect people, young, old, rich and poor. They give people the right to freedom of speech, right of freedom, privacy and to be equally treated (not discriminated). This links to Amy because with Amy having dementia she may do certain things that are not appropriate. An example could be when she goes to the toilet she decide not to close the door and leave it wide open for people see inside. As one of her care workers it would be my duty to try my best to close the door. As much as Amy may protest it is part of my job to protect Amy’s privacy and dignity.

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The Mental Capacity act

The mental capacity act has been put into place to make it possible for adults who are unable to make decisions for them to be able to make certain decisions for themselves. ‘Under the Mental Capacity Act a person is presumed to make their own decisions “unless all practical steps to help them make a decision have been taken without success”.’ This would link into Amy when she decisions for example if she decides she wants to live on her own for the rest of her life. At some point in this decision there will be a problem financially and providing a one to one carer for the whole of the day and night.

Putting people first Framework

Putting people first was put in place to outline responsibilities of care workers when working with dementia. Some of the responsibilities include; making sure the patient has taken any medication they need to take, ensuring they have had something to eat and drink throughout the day. It is very easy for somebody with dementia to become anorexic or obese because their short term memory can make them forget that they have had nothing to eat or in the opposite way that they have already had their something. This framework will help Amy because it would be their care workers responsibility to make sure they have had breakfast and write it down if she has or not for the next care worker who may be a part of her team because then they cannot just assume Amy has had something to eat or not.

There are many different types of roles and responsibilities that come with being a care worker for somebody with dementia. The care worker has to promote dignity for the service user. Respect them and give them independence, their rights and privacy.

Again giving them privacy could just be by closing their toilet door so nobody can see them when on the toilet. Focusing on strengths and the things they have the ability to do. For example when lied in bed if they can’t sit up to help themselves out of bed, rather than saying ‘you know you can’t do that on your own, you don’t need any help’ ask them ‘do you want some help? I’ll help you up, you swing your legs out of bed then you can get up’. By focusing on the things they can do you’ll be helping to promote their independence to do something else.

Involving their friends and family is another responsibility to a care worker to help the individual interact with family member and friends. This could just be by taking the service user for a walk to the park on a nice day with one of their friends. Giving them the chance to get some fresh air and interact with friends. Acting in the best interest of the individual.

This could be just by when you do take them for a walk by making sure you use a pedestrian crossing rather than just crossing the road because there are no cars coming down the road. This links into the case study with Amy for because in the case study it says ‘she is reluctant to get to get up in the morning and does not do very much for herself when getting dressed.’ As well as promoting her independence, when giving her the opportunity to interact with friends and family your giving her a reason to want to get up
in the morning.

The job role of a care worker is mainly working within a team and not as an individual. For example if a service user has 3 or 4 different care workers throughout the day, the care workers would communicate in a diary by saying when the service user has had their breakfast and what time they took their medication. They may also promote their independence by using a tablet box. This would work because in the diary the first care worker could say ‘Ann took her first tablet at 9 o’clock, she is next due to take her tablet 4 hours later which will be 1 o’clock, give her the tablet box and tell her she needs to take tablet 2’.

By doing this you’re giving Amy as the service user independence to take the tablet herself your just supporting her by telling her when to take it. This would help to improve the service user’s health because it means all their tablets will be taken at the right time. Also having the professionals work as a team writing different things into the diary such as what time they had their breakfast and what they had will help to minimise chances for obesity. This will help Amy by trying to keep her health and fitness levels balanced.

This will also help because each different professional will also know what they had and if they had something unhealthy such as fried bacon and egg on toast, the next professional may say ‘right ok you had fried foods for breakfast lets have something healthy for dinner such as a tuna pasta salad or a chicken and salad pita bread with a Muller light yoghurt. By doing this they are getting more of a balanced diet. They could also write in the amount of exercise the service user has had from going for a 20 minute walk with the dog, a half an hour game on the Nintendo Wii.

There are many different approaches to dementia care and all the different approaches can have their own effect to Amy as the service user. For example in the case study it says ‘Amy has always been able to get out of bed and get dressed with minimal support’ then it says ‘over the past week Amy has been staying in bed longer and longer; she is reluctant to get up in the morning and does not do very much for herself when getting dressed.’ There are different approaches to how the care worker could work with this problem.

If the care worker decides to help them get up by physically helping them, lifting them up and swinging their legs around to get them up and then get them dressed there could be quite a few possible outcomes with strengths and weaknesses of their own. One strength of this approach could be how Amy will then be up and ready for the day ahead. However a weakness to this approach could be how Amy has not done anything within the process. Another weakness to this approach could be how Amy may now expect to get this help every morning, because she has had full help and not had to do anything independently. A different approach to how the care worker could work with this problem could be by helping her with minimal help like usual.

Saying to Amy ‘come on Amy, I’ll help you sit up, you swing your legs around if you can.’ Once Amy is up by then helping her get ready rather than just getting her ready. A strength to this approach could be how Amy will of managed to get herself with minimal support just like n a regular day. A weakness to this approach could be pain Amy may feel when swinging her legs out of bed to get up.’ However another strength to this approach is how Amy has still had her independence promoted because she has still been able to do things for herself when getting ready. Therefore no matter what approach the care worker uses to encourage Amy to get up and get ready there will be strengths and weaknesses and effects to her. Whether or not they be good or bad effects.

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