The UK has 11 million individuals who have varying limitations of either long-term illness, disabilities or impairments. The once that are commonly discussed are the ones that affect someone’s mobility, carrying or lifting objects. People also have different perceptions of disabilities, health, or illnesses. The aim of this paper would be to discuss these concepts to bring a clear understanding of each.
1.1 Analysis of the concepts of health, disability, illness, and behavior in relation to users of health and social care services.
The concept of health, illness, and behaviors allows healthcare officials to find resolutions into how various symptoms can be evaluated, understood, and acted upon by providing individualized services. Behaviors may vary greatly depending on the illness, disability, patient or doctor’s related variables.
Health
According to World Health Organization (WHO), health is one’s complete physical, mental and social well-being which is someone’s wholeness (World Health Organization, 1948). A person is healthy if he/she is functioning well either mentally, physically, and socially to exercise one’s unique potential capabilities in one’s environment (Middleton, 2017).
Disability
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a comprehensive definition that takes disability as an outcome of an interaction between a person and four other factors which are the health condition, personal and the environmental factors (Wrold Health Organization, 2001). The Equality Act 2010 at section 6 defines disability as a condition a long that is physically or mentally impairing someone to an extent of causing substantial and long-term adverse effects on one’s daily life (Equality Act, 2010). The definition goes beyond just biomedical definitions to addresses even the social dimension of disabilities.
Illness
According to (Boyd, 2000) illness is the way a person feels as an unhealthy experience which is completely personal and interior to the patient’s inner person. Sometimes illness may exist even where there is no disease.
Behavior
Behaviors are people’s reactions as a response to a health condition. Some people may become aggressive, others stressed and others may engage in drugs as a way of coping with a particular health condition (Pilling et al., 2015).
The perception towards specific needs has differed and changed significantly across different communities. In Babylon, around 2000 Before the Common Era (BCE), inherited disability was used in forecasting the future and there were cases of infanticide of the disabled children. The old testament also saw disability as sin to God. Between 12th and 16th century, there were cases of much discrimination, isolation, asylums, harsh conditions and inhumane treatment of people with specific needs. It was until the mid-20th century when the disabled started being recognized as humans with unique capabilities. However, the work (Claassens et al., 2013, p.124; Bunning et al., 2017) states that people in the past viewed disability as evil spirits, bad omen, human transgressions, will of God, curse, or supernatural forces. The 1992 soap opera Eldorado marked the first public event having a disabled character. Improvements were then seen in 2012 The Olympic Games and Paralympic Games where the disabled persons were shown winning elite athletic medals. In addition, the UK has also enacted taken various step in empowering the people with special needs i.e the enactment and enforcement legislation such as the Equality Act, and the enforcement of the Human Right Act to cater for the disabled.
Legislations are avenues for social justice in the delivery of services to people specific needs. They outline the rights which are the first determinants of well-being. For instance, the Human Rights Act makes discrimination unlawful on people with special needs (Human Rights Act, 1998). Legislations also create legal rules, duties, and powers of the officers providing the services. Lastly, legislations regulate the conducts and decisions regarding service delivery. For instance, the equality Act requires equality in the distribution of resources and services (Equality Act, 2010).
Social policies help in addressing the social determinants of health (SDH) in people with specific needs (Donkin et al., 2017). Policies provide definite guidelines for the delivery of services by relevant departments and legislation. Policies inform social workers on mainstreaming and integrating development practices to the people. Policies act like tools for implementation of legislation to achieve socio-economic development, inclusion, and protection of the social welfare of people with specific needs. A culture of society may determine the behavior of people with specific needs. Cultural factors have the power of influencing the well-being of people by influencing attitudes, parameters of coping, health intervention, rehabilitation etc (Sousa and Almeida, 2016). For instance, culture may influence how a society perceives social help. A certain community that feels that a particular service is not culturally inappropriate may avoid the service.
2.1 Analyze the care needs of individuals with specific needs.
According to (Spicker, 2014), the concept of need involves mainly the problems people undergo. The work of (Faull et al., 2008, p.44) then explains that need incorporates a wider scope of social and environmental determinants of health which is a broad concept going beyond medical approaches to include other factors that influence health and well-being. The work of (Bradshaw, 2013, pp.1–10) classifies needs into normative needs which are what a professional thinks people want, comparative needs which arise out of comparisons of people or situations and finding what one side has what makes them better than the other side, felt needs are those a person feels that he wants and express needs are that person would demand. The (GOV. UK. Department of Health and Social Care, 2012) defines social care needs as those aimed to provide assistance with daily living activities, social interaction, maintaining independence to enable a people’s full participation in the society, protect them during vulnerable situations, help them in managing complex situations and relationships and helping them access a care home.
The work, health, and disability green paper state that the UK government is resolute in building a country that is suitable for everyone (GOV. UK. Department of Health and Social Care, 2017). In this effort, the government has various systems such as providing people with special needs with benefits and financial assistance. i.e, disability living allowances, the employment and support allowances etc. The government also recognizes the efforts of the carers by providing them with Carer’s allowances. The government also provides people with special needs with necessary equipment. For instance, the blue badge, bus pass, garden upkeep for elderly, home equipment etc. The Equality Act also provides for inclusion, the disability rights, rights against discrimination, and defines for when mental health conditions could become a disability. The government also provides education for children with special needs (Department for Education, 2011). Also, the governments require inclusion and creation of work for the disabled which also requires reasonable adjustments at work to allow access of the people with special needs.
There are various local services accessible in the UK for people with specific needs but these services vary according to one’s needs. The following are the different services;
3.1 Explain the approaches and interventions available to support individuals with specific needs.
The UK government has taken different approaches and interventions for improving the lives of people with specific needs. Among the interventions is the Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR). Through CBR, the UK government aims to improve the quality of lives of people with specific needs by trying to assist them in their basic needs. These programs emphasize on inclusion and community participation by mainly using local resources (Iemmi et al., 2015). The CBR interventions constitute five components which are social, education, health, and livelihood empowerment.
Another approach is the intermediate care. The IC is described as a care falling between primary and secondary care (Woodford and George, 2010). The IC is usually a short time service that focuses on helping someone to regain his or her independence. The approach is delivered by professionals who with someone to achieve what someone hopes to do.
The efficacy of CBR has been noted to improve the lives of people living with disabilities. Evidence-based guidelines have shown that CBR accompanied with medication has been effective in the reduction of problems experienced by people with disabilities. The study undertaken by (Iemmi et al., 2015) found that CBR was effective in the improvement of clinical outcomes and enhancement of functional recovery and the overall quality of life for people with disabilities.
Similarly, IC has been found to bring various benefits to people with specific needs. For instance, a study conducted by (Regen et al., 2008) was aimed at exploring different views held by practitioners and healthcare managers on IC intervention for elderly individuals in England. The study found the perceived benefits of IC as flexibility in the care, patient-centredness and it promoted independence.
The main emerging development is the change in the justice systems to eliminate discrimination and excluding among people with specific needs. Among the social determinants of health, the WHO has concluded that social injustice is the worst as it kills on a grand scale (Donkin et al., 2017). According to (Scior and Werner, 2015) the improved community inclusion has led to the improvement of positive attitudes towards people with special needs particularly those learning with disabilities. This major impact has been contributed by the changes in the legislative frameworks and the policies at the international, national and local levels.
Another development is the changes made in the education and training approaches to take care of people with special needs. These have has seen children with special needs being able to pursue their rights to education the same way the non-disabled children do. In terms of work, the development in vocational training and the labor market involvement through the out-of-work disability welfare benefits has yielded positive health outcomes among the people who are transitioning from getting disability benefits to securing employment (Curnock et al., 2016). Similar views were also observed in (Flint et al., 2013) where the study found that the transition was improving mental wellbeing.
Challenging behavior is a problem with someone’s behavior and this problem poses a challenge to receiving a service. For instance, when someone with a learning disability is engaged in challenging behavior, such a person may have escalating reductions in his or her quality of life (Barron et al., 2011).
According to (Pilling et al., 2015), people having learning disabilities are likely to develop challenging behavior. The study reports that challenging behaviors resulting from learning disabilities are prevalent in social, educational and health settings. People with physical disabilities are also found to develop challenging behavior. The study of (Winter et al., 2011) found that there is a relationship between challenging behaviors and conditions such as urinary incontinence, visual impairment, and chronic sleep issues among others.
Ill Health has also been found to cause challenging behavior. According to (Atherton and Crickmore, 2011, p.329) mental ill health is one of the issues that can trigger the onset of challenging behavior. Other conditions such as physical Impairment have been found to cause challenging behaviors. The work (Pilling et al., 2015) reports that teenagers are more likely to skip school due to a physical impairment.
Challenging behaviors are usually common in health and social care organizations since these behaviors are the victim’s way of coping with a particular health condition. One of the major impacts of challenging behavior on social care is the increase in the organization budgets. Given that care is provided to different patients exhibiting different behaviors, the organizations may have to spend more in either direct costs such as those needed for providing treatment to indirect cost such as housing or clothing the patients. While quantifying the financial effects of challenging behavior, the study of (Fineberg et al., 2013) found that learning disabilities led to the spending of €5975 million (2010 prices). Another impact is the reputation of health organization dealing with a challenging behavior. Poor handling of patients with challenging behavior without may cause a negative publicity on the healthcare organization (Banks et al., 2007).
There are various strategies that can be adopted when working with individuals with challenging behavior. Among them are the risk assessment and management. In this strategy, health and social care organizations can design some reasonable approaches for handling risks that can happen to the patients or the officials. The staff training is also another strategy advocated by (Pilling et al., 2015). This strategy involves equipping officials with skills and training on handling people with challenging behavior.
Another strategy that organization can focus on is early detection of behavior and starting the procedures for correcting them at an early stage. This strategy requires every carer involved in the care to be observant of any behavioral changes. Support interventions can also be carried out to the family members with the person exhibiting challenging behaviors. Support can include education, advocacy or skill training (Pilling et al., 2015). Physical healthcare can also be provided such as health checkups and examination of drugs side effects where an individual had engaged in drugs.
Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to provide an analysis of the specific needs of health and social care. In this focus, the paper looked at the how health, disability, illness, and behavior are perceived. The paper then went forward to discuss the how health and social care services and systems support individuals with specific needs are understood. Further, this paper discussed the approaches and intervention strategies that support individuals with specific needs. Lastly, the paper discussed the strategies for coping with challenging behaviors that are experienced by people with specific needs.
Reference
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