Importance of Relationship in Person-Centred Approach: Analytical Essay

The person-centred approach was developed from the work of psychologist Dr Carl Rogers. It is a non-directive approach to being with another; that believes in other’s potential and ability to make the right decisions for themselves, regardless of the therapists’ values, beliefs, and opinions. The individual’s needs, views, and wishes are the main focus. They should be prioritized and they should become central to any care or support that is accessed. The ultimate aim is to understand what each person requires and needs to live on their own, personally defined, good life. Relationships are a big part of us all. That’s why person-centered practice also recognises and involves other people who make a difference in someone’s life. For example, family, friends, and the community.

All strategies are there to make sure that a person-centred approach will involve putting into practice the following eight-person centred values that underpin all health, social and care and child care, workers.

The first one is individuality. The individuality of a person or thing consists of the qualities that make them different from the others. It distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially if they are strongly marked. Individuals should be allowed to make their own choices and they should be supported to make their own decisions. Care and support needs should be given according to the individual needs of the people. This shows respect as you are preserving the individual’s dignity and individuality. Their personal beliefs should be respected. The second person-centred value is a choice. Each individual should be supported to make choices and given the necessary information to make those decisions. Individuals should always be involved in decisions about their care and support.

The third person-centred value is privacy. You should understand each individual’s need for privacy and support this in the way you work. You should always ask permission before entering an individual’s room and remember to knock on the door. You should always close the doors when performing personal hygiene to ensure privacy. Another person-centred value is dignity. This is what we feel when we are respected and it is what makes us feel important in society and our lives. Whether individuals are eating, sleeping, or washing care workers must help them to feel dignified. To preserve the dignity of an individual you should ask them how they want to be addressed. It is also essential to try not to rush into making decisions and you should take time to listen to them to make sure their questions and other queries are answered and that their problems and doubts are solved. Using towels or clothing to cover them up when performing intimate tasks is necessary. Stereotypical assumptions should not be made about an individual or their needs.

The fifth person-centres value is respect. This shows the individual that you will support them in whatever they believe is important, whatever their age, culture, race, disability, gender or sexual orientation. You shouldn’t ignore the individuals you are supporting and should always include them in the conversation, irrespective of the subject. You should be very careful to not use a term of endearment without asking the individual what they want to be called or referred to as and you need to ensure that you don’t assume it is acceptable and it is essential to check.

The sixth value is rights. Individuals you care for and support should continue to have the same rights as when they were living independently. Each individual you care and support has the right to say no, the right to have a relationship and the right to have a say about how they are supported. They have a right to choose what they eat and when, how they dress and what they wear. They have the right to choose who to be friends with and how they spend their time. You may have to make changes to take an individual’s rights into account. You may have to make changes to take an individual’s rights into account. You may have to balance an individual’s rights against your responsibilities and consider if either the individual or yourself are at risk.

The last two person-centred values are partnership and independence. Working in a partnership with others is essential to person-centred care and support. A partnership is based around the individual whom you are supporting and all of the partners involved will need good communication, sharing appropriate information putting the individual’s best interests and needs at the centre of everything to provide them with the care and support they require. Independence is allowing the individuals you support to do things for themselves, however small. Don’t do things for them because it is quicker. Support them to do things that they can do or almost do. Independence makes people feel in control of their lives and gives them a sense of self-worth.

It is crucial to understand an individual’s needs and preferences to build a positive relationship. Developing and understanding an individual’s needs and preferences will involve building up a picture of their unique strengths and wishes. This will involve not only the individual but also those other people that are important in their lives. It is important to understand what the individual requires and what they prefer. For example, when going through a medical procedure the patient should have different options, they can choose from about the procedure that suits their needs and their preferences. The service user can then choose their preference of the procedure that they would like which also suits their needs. The user’s needs and preferences need to be considered to make sure the user is valued and their rights are not ignored and that they are respected. Giving the user different options suited to their needs and preferences will make them feel comfortable because they have their own choice which will build a positive relationship as the service user will feel respected and will have their own decisions to make.

To build a positive relationship, the individual needs to be supported. It can be seen as quite satisfying and somewhat enjoyable to enable an individual to be in control of their life and how they want to live it. This involves supporting them to learn and develop skills for themselves as well as maximising their independence which is key to building a positive relationship with the individual. There are a few things by which individuals can be enabled and supported to build positive relationships. The first thing is making themselves understood and understanding others. This may involve using signs and gestures to help communicate with the individual and help the individual understand you. For example, you might have to use simple words when speaking to a child or someone who may struggle with English. If a person uses sign language then you would use that to communicate and make yourself understood. If the person does not understand, it can make the individual distressed and their rights won’t be valued. To understand the person’s perspective, you would have to put yourself in their shoes and see things from their point of view. Empathy is an important skill for building positive relationships.

Having individuals’ views heard is also important. As it will make the individual feel understood and valued. Seeing things from their perspective will help with building the relationship and understanding how the person may feel about a particular thing or situation. If for example, an individual is not satisfied with an aspect of their care and they talk to their care about it the carer would need to use empathy to see the situation from the person’s perspective. Empathy would play an important role in this to make sure that the individual has their views heard and listened to even if you disagree with it or see how it might be a problem it’s important to understand that the individual has a reason for it and to look at it from their perspective and understand their view.

Another important aspect of building a positive relationship would be letting the individual make their own choices. For example, a choice about their treatment or the care they would like to receive. The individual should be given a few options of treatments they can choose from. They then can choose a treatment which suits them the best and which they would prefer. This would also come into simple things such as an elderly person at a care home choosing what they would like to eat for lunch. The choice is crucial to make the individual feel valued and respected it also promotes their rights. Respecting the individual’s decisions is also very important to ensure the individual is enabled and supported and to build a good positive relationship. This is important as it makes the individual feel valued and viewing the person’s situation from their perspective is important as it will help to respect their decisions because it’s what suits them and their preferences. It will make the individual more confident about their decisions if they are listened to and respected.

The individual’s needs and preferences need to be understood. For example, the individual may prefer or require a face to face interaction rather than a phone call or email. This may be because of a personal preference of the service user or their need for support or service. an example would be is someone who is hearing impaired may prefer to have an interaction or a meeting in person so they can lip-read if not they can get someone who does sign language to sign for them. The use of current information on an individual’s care plan is important because it lists the patient’s diagnosis and is organised and suited to the individual’s needs which are specific to them. it is what the patient prefers or requires that’s why it is essential to follow it to provide the suitable care that fits correspondingly with the needs of the individuals.

It is important to enable and allow individuals to do things for themselves. As it promotes independence. For example, teaching an elderly person way to help them cook for themselves without having to depend on another individual will give them a feeling of independence and allows them to make their own choices about their life which is essential as it promotes the rights of the person.

Person-centred strategies to help do this could include using advocates interpreters, translators, and signers. Also, the use of technological aids such as a light writer could potentially make communications with others easier. An advocacy service is a service provided by an advocate who is independent of social services and the NHS, and who isn’t part of your family or one of your friends. An advocate’s role includes arguing your case when you need them to and making sure the correct procedures are followed by your health and social care services. Being independent means, they are there to represent your wishes without giving their personal opinion and without representing the views of the NHS or the local authority. An advocate might help you access information you need or go with you to meetings or interviews in a supportive role. You may want your advocate to write letters on your behalf, or speak for you in situations where you don’t feel able to speak for yourself. An interpreter converts spoken or signs language statements from one language to another. An interpreter needs to have good communication skills and also good listening skills. They should be able to understand and memorise content from the source language and then reproduce it in the target language.

DynaVox is a technological aid. It helps individuals with different physical and cognitive limitations live a more independent and wealthy life. The goal is to make a difference by creating solutions that would aid people with special needs to communicate with people in their environment. They produce custom-designed solutions that are easy to use. They offer communication solutions that every individual can grow and develop throughout their life. They produce things such as speech generating devices, computer control or solutions for special education. They use eye-tracking which is a technology that is used to see where a person is looking on a computer screen. The technology can also be used to control a computer with your eyes instead of using a traditional keyboard and mouse. It helps individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities live more dependent lives as they are unable to carry out tasks by themselves. This makes communication with others easier for the person.

Staff training is another way of ensuring a person-centred approach as it includes information on the required skills, knowledge and ways of working. New staff joining can be taught through an induction programme. This would allow the new staff that are joining to be taught properly and this will allow them to gain a lot of information. Mandatory training refers to the compulsory training that is required for employees to carry out their duties safely and effectively. Many organisations deliver mandatory training as part of their routine induction training, then as choired thereafter. There is a difference between statutory and mandatory training. Statutory training relates to the training that is required by law. In some cases, there may be an instruction from a statutory body for health and social care organisations to provide specific training to meet legislative requirements. For example, health and safety training courses are based on the legislative requirements of the health and safety at work act 1974 and the management of health and safety at work regulations 1999. These legislative instruments require all employees to maintain a safe working environment. Additional or specialist training, such as stroke care, dementia care can also provide opportunities for workers to learn more about person-centred approaches.

Demonstrating professional behaviour is essential for staff. An example of this would be a code of conduct. It is a set of rules outlining the social norms and religious rules and responsibilities of, or proper practices for, an individual, party or organisation. Ethical, honour, moral codes and religious laws are some of the related concepts. This helps the workers provide high quality, safe and compassionate care and support. This happens to involve maintaining confidentiality which means to share the information about the individuals in an informative yet concise manner with those who require it or in an informative manner in a case of an accident or emergency. It involves keeping the written information and the verbal information in a safe place and secured and make sure that no one who doesn’t have authorisation has access to it. Being a reflective practitioner is important. A ‘s reflective practice is in its simplest form is thinking about or reflecting on what you do. It is closely related to the concept of learning from experience where you think about what you did, and what happened and decide from that what you would do differently next time. This involves being compassionate. Compassion is when you suspend judgement temporarily so that you are enabled to appreciate and learn from the other people’s perspectives or situations which could potentially be different to yours. To be compassionate you need to genuinely be concerned about the other person and be able to show that you feel a sense of sympathy but it is also essential to keep it professional. You need to think about and feel it from the other person’s perspective. Another value would be respect which is a way of treating or thinking about something or someone. It is taking in account of people’s opinion and what they do and admiring the person even if you don’t like something they do. Empathy is the ability to sense other people’ emotions which also involves the ability to imagine what someone else could potentially be thinking or feeling at that specific time.

A person-centred approach supports positive relationships. These person-centred strategies will enable individuals who require care and support to have their needs met and feel valued, respected and fulfilled. A person-centred approach also supports positive relationships through the following. One of them is empowering the individual. Empowering is making someone stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights. When an individual is empowered to be more aware of their strengths and abilities, they will feel more confident and take more control of their life. Health and social workers can empower people by promoting active and full participation in the planning of their care, planning person-centred care, considering individual rights, working in partnership with individuals receiving care and adapting communication skills. Adopting a person-centred approach to care planning and delivery would encourage active participation in an effective way. The main aim of a person-centred approach is to ensure that the individual receiving care is placed at the centre of the process.

Building trust is essential. Trust is a key factor in building positive relationships. Open and effective communication and installing confidence is involved in a person-centred approach. Listening attentively, honouring commitments and behaving professionally will also help to build trust and a feeling of security. It is important to remember that the trust has to be earned and it cannot be forced out of someone. Another necessary thing is developing mutual respect through respecting people’s individuality and different cultural backgrounds can also help build strong and more positive relationships. Showing respect to other’s views and preferences and opinions is important. This will support the development of positive relationships. Recognising diversity is also very important. Respecting and valuing people’s differences will lead to an inclusive environment in which people feel valued and want to actively take part. Treating people fairly and challenging discrimination when it occurs will further support the building of positive relationships.

Developing confidence is very important. Person-centred approaches can develop an individual’s confidence in making informed decisions about their care and support for example. It makes the individuals feel more in control of and in charge of what they want and it helps them feel more certain. Professionals who involve individual’s families and friends in their care and support will develop confidence in how relative’s needs can be met on how to support the service user for example. Developing teamwork is an essential skill that should be put in place. An example of developing good teamwork would be when working in a partnership with the service user’s relatives. Working in a team would involve working alongside certain individuals, their families and advocates, possibly colleagues and other professionals who are involved. However, they all have different skills, abilities, views and levels of knowledge. Doing this will give everyone who is involved in a greater sense of belonging and involvement. It will also lead to collective decisions being made and it will be a good way of learning from one another and also help to develop positive relationships. Other benefits can also be the development of new relationships, the sharing and development of new skills, knowledge and new approaches as well as creating a good environment which allows the development of innovative ideas and ways of working.