Anti-discriminatory practice is promoted in health and social care settings through putting service users at the heart of provision, ‘this means to focus on what the person needs and provide is, giving them control and power over their lives, rather than just telling them what services are available.’ (Health and Social Care, Hodder, Rasheed et al, page 27, 2010) The individual is put at the heart of service provision, the health and social care sector needs to, empower individuals, provide active support consistent with the beliefs, culture and preferences of the individual, promote individuals’ rights, choices and well-being and support individuals to express their needs and preferences. All care is centred around the individual’s needs. This means that in a health care setting a care plan will be done with the resident so that the resident feels they have control over their care and the staff would be able to care for that service user according the their preferences, sometimes it not possible for the service user themselves to tell the staff their preferences, this could be because of a disability, such as learning difficulties or someone who has a hearing impairment, then the service user could have a family member or an advocate can speak on behalf of them because if the care worker doesn’t do the care plan with them then this will not empower the service user and their care will not be to their preferences which could be very distressing for the resident.
Empowering individuals
Empowerment is one of the fundamental principles of care work, empowerment is about enabling people to take control of their lives through choices and be as independent as possible. It is important in a health and social care setting that they make service users feel like they are still in control, giving them choices about their care, even just little things like where does the individual want to sit, will make them feel