Level 3 CACHE health and social care Extended assignmentD1Communication is the sending

Level 3 CACHE health and social care Extended assignmentD1Communication is the sending, processing and interpreting of messages to send a specific meaning between people. Communication is used a lot in health and social care. For example, communication between patients and doctors, service providers and service users, and doctors and nurses. Communication must be effective in health and social care otherwise meanings can get confused and this can cause unnecessary stress or worry for many people. There are many key issues relating to communication in health and social care. These include but are not limited to verbal and non-verbal communication, barriers to communication, communication aids to overcome these barriers, Belbin’s team roles theory, Argyle’s theory that interpersonal communication is a skill that can be learnt or taught, Tuckman’s ‘forming, storming, norming, performing’ theory on team development, alternative methods of communication, techniques to create effective communication, how personal information should be handled (confidentiality) and how records should be handled. D2The many different types of communication are split into verbal and non-verbal methods of communication. The spoken word is only 7% of human communication, with 38% in the modulation of voice and 55% in body movement. Health and social care practitioners will be required to communicate with many different people, including individuals of different ages, patients/clients, colleagues, and other agencies. Therefore, learning different key issues in communication is relevant to health and social care practitioners. “Learning to communicate with other people is arguably the most important learning” (Barrat et al 2000,P.1, Leicester) Confidentiality and record handling help protect service user’s personal information. There is no absolute confidentiality in health and social care because there are circumstances where information must be shared, such as a court order. Confidentiality information must be known by service providers to stop an individual’s information from being unnecessarily shared. “It is of course vital to protect the rights of a client where appropriate, but health and social care workers and clients alike should bear in mind that a carer’s duty to share information-where required-is of equal importance” ( ENA 2018, accessed on 9th December 2019, available @ https://ena.co.uk/news/confidentiality-in-health-and-social-care-how-is-it-ensured/ ) Barriers to communication can be put into five categories: medical conditions(for example, deafness and dementia), language( including not speaking the same language as someone), personal factors (such as anger and anxiousness), different abilities and disabilities (including autism and cerebral palsy) and other factors (for example, drugs and alcohol). Communication aids can help overcome some of these barriers. Specific examples include cognitive behavioural therapy that can help overcome personal factors, sign language can aid deaf people and translation/interpretation services can aid non-English speakers. Consequently, the barriers and aids that exist are relevant to practitioners as communication barriers can often be encountered in health and social care environments. References D3Developing pupils’ social communication skills, 2000 Barrat, P, Border, J, Joy, H, Parkinson, H, Potter, M, and Thomas, J David Fulton publishers, Leicester, p1ENA care group, Confidentiality in health and social care: how is it ensured? 2018 (website)https://ena.co.uk/news/confidentiality-in-health-and-social-care-how-is-it-ensured/Accessed 9th December 2019C1Many theories and legislations underpin health and social care work and communication within this work.Tuckman’s teamwork theory (1965) helps to explain group development. The ‘forming, storming, norming, performing’ model can guide practitioners on when a group will be most productive, with ‘performing’ being the most productive stage and ‘storming’ being the least. This can be helpful for practitioners offering/running group sessions or activities for service users.Argyle’s communication theory (1972) argues that interpersonal communication is a skill that can be learnt by anyone. Argyle also provides a cycle of communication. This cycle can be used by practitioners as a basic structure to provide effective communication for every individual. GDPR 2018 (General Data Protection Regulation) provides rules on confidentiality. GDPR makes sure practitioners know exactly how to manage personal information they get from individuals. This is important as in health and social care environments, practitioners are in a privileged position as they are trusted by their clients. The Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the exact rights everybody is entitled to. Included in The Human Rights Act are privacy, independence, protection from abuse, respect, and dignity. This is vital for practitioners as in their roles it is important that rights are upheld and promoted to protect individuals from maltreatment. Having a philosophical approach to communication in health and social care requires practitioners to be inquisitive about their work and what happens around them. Philosophy itself is all about questioning the world and coming up with theories to improve or just understand it. O’Neill from the Guardian states “In order to be an effective practitioner I must question everything on broader spectrums and my philosophy degree has been invaluable in allowing me to do this.” (O’Neill 2012, accessed on 10th December 2019, available @ https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2012/apr/27/philosophy-social-work) C2Communication in a health and social care setting requires certain principles, standards, and values that are expected. Values relating to communication in health and social care include the promotion of respect and dignity. Dignity and respect can be given to individuals by not speaking in a patronising way, using an individuals’ preferred methods of communication, introducing yourself when you meet individuals or when you enter an individual’s room/space, asking the individual how they would like to be addressed, making sure individualised care is given and making sure the individuals privacy is respected where possible. Individualised care or person-centred care is a principle in health and social care that ensures individuals are given the best help possible for them. For example, if an individual with limited movement ability is visiting their GP, they may need extra things to make their appointment easier or better. An example of some things this specific individual may need/require are help getting to the surgery (some places offer community lift schemes to aid this), help finding a chair while waiting for the appointment and an accessible room to have the appointment in. Person-centred care is important in communication because it helps an individual feel respected, which in turn empowers the individual to communicate their expectations and needs. According to the NHS, the benchmark of best practice for this is “Communication between staff and patients takes place in a manner that respects their individuality” (NHS 2003, The essence of care: patient-focused benchmarks for clinical governance, available @ https://www.scie.org.uk/publications/guides/guide15/files/nhs-essenceofcare.pdf ) References C3How philosophy can be applied in social work 2012 (website article)Louise O’Neill https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2012/apr/27/philosophy-social-workAccessed 10th December 2019The essence of care: dignity and privacy 2003 (online guidebook)NHS, p5https://www.scie.org.uk/publications/guides/guide15/files/nhs-essenceofcare.pdf Accessed 11th December 2019B1 One theory that is relevant to communication in health and social care is Tuckman’s group development model (1965). Tuckman’s model is relevant to communication because it provides somewhere to refer to how a group should communicate and how they should achieve within their group. Ideally, the group must go through all the stages of Tuckman’s model for their group to mature and their communication to be as effective as possible. Tuckman’s model contains four original stages: forming, storming, norming and performing. Communication within each stage has a different atmosphere. Forming is the first interaction stage. This is where the group comes together for the first time. This provides an opportunity to see how every member of the team works by themselves. Team members will ask about the purpose and aims of the group in this stage and have basic introductory conversations about themselves with other team members. Storming is the second interaction stage. This is the lowest productive stage in the model. Team members begin to figure out where they fit into the group and push boundaries. This stage often brings out a clear leader within the group because those who are more dominant within the group which can potentially cause tension and conflicts. Resilience and patience are vital within these stages. Communication in this stage can often be quite ineffective at first however this helps individuals to find the boundaries and their roles within the team. Norming is the third interaction stage. Rules and values are formed within the group. Bonds are made, the tension lessens, and the group’s overall identity begins to develop. The group will find a shared goal and create a plan to accomplish it. The group is more cohesive and therefore there are fewer conflicts. The group’s communication increases in effectivity at this point as the group becomes a single unit instead of separate people.Performing is the fourth interaction stage. The group gets stronger and more productive. Individuals will feel a sense of belonging within the group. All work is collaborative in the team as it has learnt how to effectively work together. Communication is now clearer as the group has matured and a higher level of respect is seen which allows effective listening to occur. Tuckman later added a fifth stage, adjourning, to his model. Adjourning refers to the group ending or completing their original purpose. This stage ideally is where everyone in the group moves on individually and feels proud of their accomplishments within the group. “This theory on group development is helpful as it provides insight into how groups develop.” (Wyatt et al 2017)B2One way to ensure equality, diversity and inclusive practice for communication in health and social care is to follow equal opportunity strategies. Equal opportunity strategies are used by the NHS to ensure equality, diversity and inclusive practice are all promoted in their services. The NHS strategy mentions patient diversity and equality and ensuring people from minority groups/backgrounds have equal opportunities in accessing careers in healthcare and that they receive fair treatment in the workplace. The equal opportunity strategy originally came from the European Commission and focused on men and women having equal opportunities. The strategy is based on principles, including the participation of all staff. Having the participation of all staff as a principle encourages staff to become involved in the promotion of inclusive practice and equality across their workplace. The strategy also reminds practitioners that they must communicate with everyone they need regardless of the individual’s differences. Another way equality, diversity and inclusive practice can be ensured is inclusive communication. Inclusive communication is “an approach that seeks to create a supportive and effective communication environment, using every available means of communication to understand and be understood” (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists 2003, accessed on 12th December 2019, available @ https://www.essexice.co.uk/about-us/what-is-inclusive-communication/ ). Inclusive communication includes the use of signing, objects of reference, speech, gestures, body language and more. The idea behind inclusive communication is to value all the ways a person can communicate and enable people to communicate effectively and involve themselves in the world around them. For example, if a young woman with language difficulties who uses gestures and signing to communicate with others enters an A&E section in a hospital that uses inclusive communication, she would be able to communicate with all staff members rather than them having to find or book a sign language interpreter. This saves the staff and the woman time, as the woman may not have been seen straight away if the nurses had to find an interpreter in the hospital just to find out which department the woman needs to go to.Another example of ways to ensure equality, diversity, and inclusion for communication in health and social care is the practice of person-centred care. Person-centred care is a practice that focuses wholly on a person and their differences. Examples of person-centred care include asking a person what their preferred method of communication is, making sure an individual has any specific access requirements they may need, asking the individual how they wish to be addressed, and tailoring their treatment to follow their own personal beliefs and priorities where possible. A specific scenario that shows person-centred care is an elderly man has a walking stick and is partially blind and lives in a care home. In this scenario, a practitioner should introduce themselves when they enter the man’s space and if they need the man to read anything, they should increase its size or provide it in braille or read it out (whatever the man prefers). The practitioner should aim to empower the service user and to make them feel comfortable discussing anything they need to. Another example of something that can be done to ensure these things is the promotion of rights, diversity, equality, and inclusion. There are many ways to promote these things in the workplace. These include but are not limited to: Creating posters on the subject and putting them in visible places, hosting talks and events that encourage conversations on the topic, offering guidance and feedback on the topic, forming a diversity committee within the workplace and offering reviews on peoples knowledge on the topic with constructive feedback. Another thing that can promote equality, diversity, and inclusion for communication is putting up posters showing people how they can register complaints or feedback about services. The posters themselves should be clear and inclusive with bold writing. Any complaints that are received should be responded to efficiently and correctly, making sure service users are clear that any comments they make have been noted and will be fully listened to and worked upon. B3There are many aspects of communication in health and social care that I have improved on or learnt about throughout this course that I can incorporate into my own future practice. For example, through analysing my own learning styles and my own communication I have learnt that the strengths of my own communication are that I enunciate my words well, polite, a good listener, open-minded and I think before I speak. I have also learnt through this process that my weaknesses in my communication are that I speak quite quietly, I am easily intimidated, my height means I am often physically talked down to and I sometimes use words that others my own age do not understand. My personal opportunities to improve on my weaknesses are practicing speech, having 1-1 conversations with others and using my work experience to learn how to put good communication into practice with others. Through this course, I have also learnt about many alternative forms of communication. As an example, Makaton, sign language, gestures and finger spelling are all methods of communication that do not include speech and instead work by using different shapes and positions to communicate with others. Because of this learning, in the future I will be more aware about the different methods of communication that are available and will understand more about individual’s specific communication preferences. Furthermore, before this course I was completely unaware about the different services that were available for people with communication difficulties. This information will improve my future practice as it provides me with a clear understanding of support services that are available. Some support services include SEAP (support, empower, advocacy, promote), MIND (mental investigation of neurological disorders) and BILD (British institute of learning disabilities). Another aspect of my learning that will improve my future practices as a practitioner is the new knowledge I have of barriers to communication and the factors that influence communication. Learning about the barriers to communication has also taught me specific ways to try and overcome these barriers. This new knowledge includes physical barriers to communication. A specific example of a barrier in care or health environments includes protective equipment such as masks and isolation gowns. In referral to these items Heart of Hospice audio magazine says, “Personal protective equipment actually has a very important purpose, but it does tend to create a barrier.” (Finter et al 2019, link unavailable).References B4Extended Diploma in health and social careWyatt, L, Wedlake, P, Ferreiro Peteiro, M, and Rasheed, H 2017Hodder Education, London, P.67What is inclusive communication?https://www.essexice.co.uk/about-us/what-is-inclusive-communication/Royal college of Speech and Language therapists 2003Accessed 12th December 2019 Removing barriers to care: communication and connection Episode 167Finter, J and Bower, H 2019Heart of Hospice Audio magazine/Podcast available on Spotify (link unavailable)