Reducing Abuse

Reducing Abuse
(LO 4.1, 4.2) Work in a person centred way
Everyone is different, we all have preferences about our daily routines including what time we get up, what clothes we wear, the food we eat and how we choose to spend our time. Our ability to exercise choice in this way is essential for our wellbeing. Where routine develop in care services, there is a risk that these choices will be taken away from the service users and everyone will be treated the same. The less a person is treated as an individual, the greater the risk that they will be seen as just a care task. A person’s support needs in a health and social care setting are much greater than simply addressing physical care needs. A person’s emotional and social wellbeing needs to be considered. This means getting to know the person as an individual, with a history, personality and relationships which extend beyond the care setting. Make sure that you respect people choices, recognise individual differences and treat people sensitively and appropriately at all times. They have a right to choose how to live their life. They also have a right to privacy and dignity. If they feel uncomfortable about something then it should not happen, unless there is a justifiable reason, like health.
Encourage active participation
A service user may have many professionals involved in their life, all of whom will have an opinion as to what is in their best interest. It may sound obvious, but a service user will have an opinion too. You should ensure that you involve service users in decisions about their care wherever possible. This may mean providing information in different formats such as pictures or symbols to assist a person’s understanding about the decision needed. All policies which may affect a service user should be available in an easy read format and different languages where necessary. Where service users are routinely involved in decisions about their support they are more likely to assert themselves if choices are taken from them. This will then make it harder for another person to take advantage of them.
Unfortunately things go wrong which is why it is important to have an accessible complains procedure. Service users need to be able to let services now when they are not happy with how they are treated. This helps keep people safer by ensuring poor practice is addressed at the earliest opportunity. Complaints procedures provide a formal process for concerns to be investigated and responded to. If concerns are dealt with on an informal basis there may be no record of what happened and what action was agreed. This makes it more likely that things will go wrong again. Complaints procedures give service users a voice to ensure that they are listened to and reinforce that they have a right to raise concerns about unfair or inappropriate treatment. Make sure the complaints procedure is easily understandable and that service users know how to use it. Information about how to complain should be easy to read. You may need to include pictures or symbols to make it easier to understand. It should also be available in a range of formats like; audio tape, and large print. It is important to chick that service users know who they would talk to if they were unhappy, this should include people to contact both inside and outside the service. There is a lot that can be done to reduce abuse from happening. Training care staff to recognise abuse and help stop it from accering. It is also important to empower service users to take an active role in their care and assert their needs independently where possible.
Having an accessible complains procedure will reduce abuse because if it easily accessible more service users are likely to use it. Also if the complaints procedure is simple to use and understand again more service users are likely to use it, for example; if the complains procedure is 20 pages long and difficult to understand service users are very unlikely to use it, but if it was only 3 pages and easily understood and also lift somewhere that service users could get to easily it is much more likely to be used if the service user is unhappy with the way they are being treated. It is a good idea to have copies of the complains procedure left around the home so service users do not have to ask staff, as asking may make the service user uncomfortable if staff know they are unhappy and wish to complain. The easier it is to complain. The more likely service users are likely to complain. The less likely they will be abused.