What Is The Importance Of Care

Provide outline of the importance of care
Health professionals are important people that are involved in decision-making process of service users and really have to consider the importance of the principles of care
Autonomy is important because it provides clients with choice and as a health professionals it’s their role to empower the client into realising that they have choices and can make choices based on those choices (Anon, N.D.).
Choice is important because people want to feel as they are able to act freely, which gives them sense of self value and giving patient’s choice within health care settings provide them to be better prepare to overcome any obstacles.
Data Protection Act 1998 There are laws in place that health professionals legally have to follow to protect people’s personal information that is shared within healthcare and reassure us that confidentiality is a priority of health professionals which enables us to trust that individual. The Data Protection Act applies to all social services and health records.
The Equality Act 2010 promotes opportunity in achieving and eliminate discrimination with the aim of reducing the inequalities within the healthcare setting.
It really enforces clear values and principles that we already see within the NHS settings today and so whenever there is a need for healthcare or medical/social care, everyone has the right to be treated fairly and not to be discriminated against because of an individual’s race, sexuality, disability or beliefs. It is stated within the Equality Act 2010 that every patient should be treated as individuals and with dignity and respect.
Respect is vital to patient care and the principle is that every individual is worthy of respect and taken into account as an individual, their dignity will be respected when it comes down to personal care and everyday living and they will not be demeaned in this
respect.

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How the principles of care effect the rights of vulnerable people

Health professionals have a duty to safeguard and protect all patients but there are extra steps put in place for vulnerable patients who are less able to protect themselves from harm or abuse. A vulnerable person may have a disability of some sort, either mental or physical; which may affect their ability to understand information to make a decision and to be able to communicate any decisions made. If an adult lacks the capacity to give consent either because they have dementia or suffer from schizophrenia, a health professional will make a decision on the care that they receive in their ‘best interest’ (Anon 2014.) This is where the principles of care come in and they really have to consider whether it is safe to wait until a patient is able to give consent at a later stage; by doing this they still at some levels the patient has autonomy and choice. Trying to identify issues that the patient would normally take into account if they were making decisions themselves for example religious beliefs from what they have previously said or from involving family members (Anon 2014.).

Health professional at some point might come across a vulnerable patient in the community that is feeling suicidal and to which they have a duty to break confidentiality to protect the patient from themselves. (Anon 2014.). Regardless of the patients’ health or cultural background, health professionals work on core values of respect for all patients