Paper Example on Health and Social Care

Essential for Health and Social Care Professionals

Empowerment in social work is defined as the ability of individuals, communities, or groups of people to gain liberty of their situations and actions, set their goals and objectives and be able to work together as a team to optimize the value of their lives. Empowerment in social and health care is the capacity of patients to take charge of their actions and have control over their lives. Empowerment in health care revolves around patients' independence. Empowerment means patients allowing them to choose what they believe are best for the betterment of their health hence improving the quality of their lives. Empowerment of patients includes respecting their privacy, maintaining the confidentiality of their health records, taking care of them and making decisions that are in their best interest. Politics play a role in disempowering and exclusion of health and social careers which makes them feels like they are not full members of society. Empowerment gives people a right to voice their opinions and contribute to decisions that affect their lives.

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It is vital for health and social care professionals to understand principles of empowerment and inclusive practice. Some of these principles include equity for all, provision of different financing options for various patients and ensuring universality of accessing the health and social care services for all. These principles of empowerment enable the health practitioners to provide the services to all individuals regardless of the existing cultural diversities and differences. The principles help to segregate between work and personal issues. The clients in need of the health care and social services represent different ethnic, races, social statuses and economic backgrounds the principles of empowerment and inclusive practice are fundamental to the achievement of these needs. These principles of empowerment make it possible to provide financing options and payment schemes to people of all social classes without leaving anyone out.

Health and social care professionals are responsible for empowering the clients and safeguarding them at this point when they are very prone to harm and abuse. Understanding the principles, ethics of work and inclusive practice enables the healthcare professionals to protect the health records, privacy, and the rights of their clients at this time when they face financial, psychological difficulties and health challenges. Understanding the principles of empowerment fosters patient's independence, and shapes the needs based on the preferences of the patients and not only using the opinions of the nurses.

Understanding the principles of empowerment and inclusive practice by health and social care professionals facilitates teamwork amongst the teams. Through active teamwork professionals and caregivers come together to share knowledge, ideas, and resources which at the end of the day make them better placed to handle challenges and complex situations (Reeves pg123 2011).

When health and social care professionals understand these principles, they can protect the dignity of patients and put the patient's priorities first (Pulvirenti pg303 2014). This is achieved through full disclosure of the patient's condition, a discussion of the alternative financing options available and also disclosing whether the health facility can address the needs of the respective patient.

Conclusively, empowering healthcare facilitates independence and boosts the patient's confidence in the system. Therefore, it is necessary that careers attentively examine the patient's goals and aspiration and respect them. Empowerment strategies are to be developed around what is best to for the patient's health even when it may be unjustifiable to the society. For example, euthanasia is not legally accepted, but in some cases, it might be justifiable.

Health or Social Care Needs of an Individual During the Lifecycle Stage of Early Adulthood

This stage begins at 25-45 before middle adulthood kicks in. It represents the most crucial phase of our lives and a lot of time is spent in this stage. Most of the activities that one engages in at this stage reflect in the later phases of life. Some of these activities include finding a mate, choosing a career, finding a good job, building a home and establishing a family. There are different health and social needs relevant to this stage of development. They fall into four broad categories namely: intellectual needs, social needs, physical needs, and emotional needs.

Emotional needs human beings are born with a nature that requires a set of emotional needs which must all be fulfilled for them to have good mental health. Some of the emotional needs during early adulthood include; security, having meaning and purpose, sense of achievement, privacy, sense of control, attention and finally friendship and intimacy. At early adulthood, people feel the urge to connect emotionally with a significant other who accepts them entirely for who they are and this lead to a friendship which may breed intimacy. At this stage, people are required to have a mate and start a family together. During early adulthood ones develops the need for security which encompasses being in an environment where they can grow and optimize their potential, have a career and take up some responsibilities (Pettit pg482 2010). The sense of competence and achievement is the urge to attain some life goals like growing professionally and investing.

Intellectual needs - this type of needs involve learning, communicating, and acquiring new skills. When adulthood kicks in people prepare for various responsibilities in life which pushes them to acquire new skills that will be useful to them. Some of the intellectual needs acquired at adulthood include getting a good education, a well-paying job, learning a new skill like managing one's finances and even pregnant mothers getting mentally prepared to have and raise a baby (Charles pp1068 2010).

Social needs- these needs revolve around developing new relationships and taking up responsibilities. They may include a sense of belonging, love, safety, and acceptance. At this stage, people move out of their family homes to begin a life with strangers or their mates which means they need to know how to relate to other people around them. At this stage, people also need to establish formal relationships at work and learn how to connect with different groups of people.

Physical needs- during early adulthood the body develops to its maximum and one's health tends to deteriorate towards late adulthood. Some of the abilities that people possess at this stage include sensory skills, cardiac functioning, and muscular activities. Some of the needs at this stage include food, security, and an opportunity to optimize their potential. For example, most athletes do their best at this stage (Osgood pg210 2014). At this stage, many women tend towards their menopause, and therefore it is their active stage to have children.

Factors Where a Person May Be Considered Vulnerable to a Health and Social Care Practitioner

Vulnerability refers to susceptibility to harm or danger. The vulnerability might be used to also mean openness to emotional injury, assault, criticism, or physical attacks. The vulnerability can be defined as the inability of an individual to cope, resist, or recover from the negative impact of a hazard. For example, people who often go out late night drinking can be said to be highly vulnerable to rapes.

Adolescents and filled with the anxiety to explore different and new things which makes them very vulnerable. Adolescents in most cases do not act in the best of their interests either because they underestimate the vulnerability of engaging in some behaviors or because they are not informed of the dangers associated with some of the activities they choose. Some adolescents, however, act in hopelessness because they have despaired in life and are not at all worried about the vulnerabilities they are exposed to. Adolescents are highly susceptible to peer influence, and they may sometime do things so that they can get accepted by other peers. This is very common, and that is how at the end of the day majority are recruited into alcoholism, prostitution, and even drug abuse and trafficking. Such adolescents with a weak character are very easy to influence.

Adolescents face many changes and are exposed to many different environments that come with different challenges which may cause them to make all the wrong decisions. They need to be helped, and they can only be helped by appreciating the different environments and choices that life throws at them. Health and social care professionals may consider an adolescent vulnerable to a couple of factors (Viner pg1641 2012). First, health practitioners may question the health of an adolescent with bad drinking habits. Some adolescents with habits of partying late night in places deemed risky are constantly putting their health at risk as they are exposed to things like rape, assault, and theft attacks. Such behaviors may pose dangers that affect their health and life in the long-run. Sometimes sensitivity to the existing cultural practices may also make teenagers vulnerable. For example, being brought up in a society that permits homosexual marriages, does not condemn prostitution may expose an adolescent to these acts since they tend to imagine they are justifiable and acceptable.

Adolescents in juveniles are exposed to violence and crimes which in the long run tend to affects their future decision as they are seen choosing the bullets life. Early childhood environments that people are exposed to make them very susceptible in future. Runaway adolescents who have nobody to monitor are more likely to join criminal groups like terrorists and become gangsters. This makes it very clear that the role of a parent is pivotal to right wrongs of individual adolescents. Lifestyle choices and routinely activities according to health practitioners to a great extent influence the lives of adolescents. Some of them who are exposed to abject poverty are most likely to suffer rejection and emotional injuries at schools, and this may lead to low performance.

Reference

Munn-Giddings, C. And Winter, R., 2013. A Handbook for Action Research in Health and Social Care. Routledge.

Reeves, S., Lewin, S., Espin, S. And Zwarenstein, M., 2011. Interprofessional Teamwork for Health and Social Care (Vol. 8). John Wiley & Sons.

Pulvirenti, M., Mcmillan, J. And Lawn, S., 2014. Empowerment, Patient-Centered Care, and SelfManagement. Health Expectations, 17(3), Pp.303-310.

Osgood, D.W., Foster, E.M. And Courtney, M.E., 2010. Vulnerable Populations and The Transition to Adulthood. The Future of Children, 20(1), Pp.209-229.

Viner, R.M., Ozer, E.M., Denny, S., Marmot, M., Resnick, M., Fatusi, A. And Currie, C., 2012. Adolescence and The Social Determinants of Health. The Lancet, 379(9826), Pp.1641-1652.

Pettit, G.S., Erath, S.A., Lansford, J.E., Dodge, K.A., and Bates, J.E., 2011. Dimensions of Social Capital and Life Adjustment in The Transition to Early Adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35(6), Pp.482-489.

Charles, S.T., 2010. Strength and Vulnerability Integration: A Model of Emotional Well-Being Across Adulthood. Psychological Bulletin, 136(6), P.1068.