Understanding Specific Health and Social Needs - Essay Example

Understanding Specific Health and Social Needs 1.1 Definition of terms Health is a term that appears to be relative and whose definition varies depending on which context the definer relates to. In fact even within medical field, the definition is still broad and becomes relatively harder to specify (NCCC, 2014). However, common definition often puts it as all factors including the physical condition of the body, mental correctness, and spiritual soundness. Biomedical examination may limit it to the condition freeness from a disease. World health organization defines it as that state of the body where there is complete physical, mental and social well being but not just a mere lack of or absence of disease (WHO, 1946). The state of healthiness of an adult person as well as children may follow same procedure for examination. Normally, physical appearance, individual behavior compared to the routine behavior and socio cultural relationships are ways of telling if an individual is healthy or not (having disease or not) (NCCC, 2014). Illness on the other hand is also defined differently by different health scholars. Some define it as that state of socio cultural context that manifests a disease (NCCC, 2014). Some also define it in a general manner to mean the feeling that comes when/ if a person has a disease (Ingram, 2012). Ingram explains that it manifests in a way of pain, fatigue, weakness or in form of some abnormal discomfort. In both definitions, it is apparent that presence of a disease is portrayed as a common factor to an illness presence. This brings us to the third term, which is the disease. Disease according to Ingram is the abnormal condition that affects an organism here being human. He explains that the abnormal state may be due to an infection, toxicity or trauma (Ingram, 2012). According to girls’ health website, illness is just another type of sickness which can either be acute, or may last a long time sometimes even a lifetime (Women's Health, 2013). This then can lead to a disability if it is not checked and last for a lifetime Disability is defined by the office of the women’s health as a physical or mental problem that can hinder an individual from performing ordinary chores that he/she would have done easily without the condition. It can be acquired during pregnancy leading to a person being born with the condition or can be acquired from an injury (Women's Health, 2013). All the above conditions present a challenge not only to the infected persons but also to the affected ones. By affected persons, I mean those individuals who are supposed to care for them in this case, either family member(s) or the therapists or doctor assigned to attend to the patient in question. Such patients will need a continuous care especially at the diagnosis stages and such comfort can only come from trained health workers, family member, or the contracted therapist. In fact, the type of care that a person suffering from a disability acquired from certain injuries or even those that were born with can influence the behavior of them or not. A good care can lead to a positive mentality while a negative perception results from bad care. 1.2 How Perception of specific needs have changed overtime Initially, disability was seen as inability and was associated to certain reasons that not only related to health issue but also the spiritual and socio cultural aspects of life. In fact different cultures explained causes of disability differently with those inclined to the traditional culture associating it to some spirits. An example of such reasoning was well explained in the book of spirit catches you and you fall down by Anne Fadiman. This was in relation to the Hmong culture that views the cause of diseases differently and embraces a different method for the cure (Fadiman, 1997). However, this fact is slowly but steadily changing. In fact, today’s society does not view disability in a bad way with modern scientific methods being embraced for the treatment of the illness and the care for the disabled. 1.3 Impact of Legislation, Social Policy, Society and Culture on the Ways that Services are offered to the Special Needs Patients Different countries have different legislations with regards to evidence based practices. However, most legislation surrounds creation for more research that would see the early diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with different illnesses. The problem with this is that most of the targeted illnesses/ diseases as also explained by the article of the British journals on care of patients with Gastrointestinal disorders in the united kingdom (Strategy for future) (Hellier, Sanderson, Morris, Elias, & Caestecker, 2006). This was in reference to the concern of British governments on other diseases but disregarding gastrointestinal related complication. Governments normally design the policies framework that regards the way in which such related practices should be conducted. Government of USA and other likeminded are now passing policies that allow insurance to pay for the medical bills of the citizens at a subsidized affordable rate. This makes the services to be affordable to corresponding patients as a way of enacting laws that concerns the welfare of citizens. Proper legislation should be enacted to allow or create a legal framework for conducting of evidence based practices while also creating more inspection bodies. State can also help by creating and disseminating awareness information for the benefit of the general public. Society and culture has a way of affecting social care practices given a particular belief. This can be religious beliefs, customs and any other such cultures. Like explained above, culture can influence the perception of a community towards clinical procedures. Some surgical practices are not welcome by some communities or cultures like the surgical operations to removal an organ from another person and placing the same in another person. Other controversial practices are the diagnosis procedures that may involve conducting operations on the patients that to some communities are unethical (Hilmer, 2010). For this reason, some patients may require special treatment of such cases. In fact, this is also recommended in the clinical practices and therapeutic procedures conducted on the patients (Fadiman, 1997). Social policies are also designed in a way that will ensure the safety of the nurses or clinical officers while ensuring maximum and professional services to the patients. While taking care of patients with some infections, the nurse has to take all the necessary precautions to avoid infection of the care taker. The same concern is also extended to the administration of procedures that aims to target curing patients from certain conditions. Example is the case that involves taking necessary care to avoid making the patient contract verminous pneumonia while supported by the life support machine. This reason has contributed to more research on ways to avoid such cross infection while improving on the service delivery and professionalism. In most therapeutic procedures, the patient is asked how some of the procedures should be done and if she or he is comfortable with such procedures. Today’s generation is more educated and relates so much the cost of a given medical procedure to the outcome. This economic and outcome concern is obviously very influential and is reported to contribute to more than 40 percent of the health outcomes (Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014). Even physicians today acknowledge that addressing the social needs of the patient is as important as addressing their medical needs (Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014). Poor social policies are known to be related to poor welfare including poor housing to the citizens. Without a proper shelter, an individual becomes susceptible to contracting asthma which has caused a lot of disability in people. For this reason, most Non Governmental Organization other societies working together with governments provide affordable housing to people as a way of avoiding disability acquired but which can be prevented (Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014). 2.0 How Health and Social Care Services and Systems Support Individuals with Specific Needs 2.1 Care Needs for Patients with Specific Needs Different disabilities and illnesses require different approaches in a bid to finding a solution or cure for the given condition. However, there are some universally recommended approaches to handling persons with special needs. Whatever the nature of condition, the patient will always require special attention on a regular basis depending on the severity of the condition. If the condition require continuous support like the ones that are on wheel chairs that are not self propelling will require a helping hand once In a while during some times in the course of the day. For this reason, there needs to be a person who can either be a personal therapist or family member familiar with the patient’s condition to continually accord him/ her such needed services (Jewel, Downing, & McFarlane, 2009). 2.2 Current Systems for Supporting Individuals with Specific Needs There are different systems used to support special needs individuals. The scientifically researched and tested method which has also yielded a positive effect is the psycho education of the family members of the patient. This was developed by Anderson, Hogarty, and Reiss in 1980 while trying to address the problem schizophrenia. This procedure involves engaging family members and offering extended education to family members about the condition or disease the patient is suffering from (Jewel, Downing, & McFarlane, 2009). this method also involve educating the family members on proper guidelines that would help in total recovery of the patient from the disease or condition without relapsing back to the critical state. this was motivated by the findings that Psychotic relapse hinders long term clinical improvements (Jewel, Downing, & McFarlane, 2009). This then gave birth to Family Psycho education Groups which is embraced today by many people following therapeutic and clinical recommendations. It is a family psycho education that incorporates mental illness education, family support, crisis intervention, effective communication strategies as well as training that concerns how to solve problems. Multiple family psycho-educations are a contemporary approach to mental illness from psychological, biological and social prospect. It is divided into phases that add up to three in total. The first phase involves meeting of families with two clinicians and conducting of workshops with multiple families for a round one hour thirty minutes. This stage aims to prevent relapse and social rehabilitation. This happens on a forte night basis and emphasizes the adoption of a structured problem solving format to help them in the discussion-like teaching. Then the second stage aims to extend the education to community level. This normally happen after some time normally after the first year. Then there is the third phase which involves trying to connect the families together with each other to form a strong social network that can go for some time while meeting the family social contact needs. This is done by finding solutions to the problem at hand, giving each other emotional support and external socializing with other people outside the group (Jewel, Downing, & McFarlane, 2009). This group education has favorable research findings on the ability to prevent relapse, improving skills for solving related problems, and thereby improving the quality of life both for the families and the patient. This positive result was also found with patients with schizophrenia who adopted this practice (McFarlane, Link, Dushay, Marchal, & Crilly, 1995). Then there is the government sponsored or subsidized insurance schemes that offer medical services to the less wealthy people. In USA, there was the Obamacare that targeted the ordinary citizens who cannot afford expensive medical services which they deserve. There are also government initiated centers that deal with specific groups. It can be gender based, like the case of CPR which targets to help children below 3 years who are experiencing growth and development problems (CPR, 2015). There is also the women’s health branch of state department that helps women with disability problems cope with the challenges that are posed by such conditions (Women's Health, 2013). Federal government has also established special interventions to help in the management of such unfortunate conditions. Some of the interventions are preventive in nature as they aim at preventive any undesirable conditions from happening even before they happen. This may include the 2.3 Services Available at Centre for Parent Information and Resources It serves as information and product resource centre to the community of parent training information center so as to channel their efforts to serving families of children with disabilities (CPR, 2015). The regional parent technical assistance centers act as collaborators and partners in CPIR operations so that parents can be able to have a foundational voice in shaping their products as well as their services (CPIR). The Parent and technical assistance centers coordinate their activities with those of Center for parent information and resources so that the training of parents within the network does not get duplicated thereby wasting time and resources (CPR, 2015). In structural form, this center acts through agency and has the following functions; conducting a national assessment of the center to ascertain their needs and their assets. They also build a website that give parent’s centers access to many CPIR products and allowing them to initiate collaboration. They create and spread products through user-centre process. They also keep parent centers updated with any new information from US department of education, technical assistance and the needed network for distribution (CPR, 2015). Center for parent information and resources offer different kind of services to parents or rather infants and toddlers. This they do only to toddlers below three years who are showing some signs of impaired growth. They give early intervention services customized to address the educational and development needs of children below three years. These services also include helping families of such toddlers to get services for their kids. This is made possible within the law, the same law that avails special education services to disabled individuals in local areas. In California district for example, there is the strong start DC early intervention program. It is a state comprehensive and multi disciplinary system providing early intervention and therapeutic services to little children with or that are showing impaired development or those with disabilities. This help is also extended to their families. The beauty with these services is that they are flexible and respect different cultural views. However, their major concern is the child and purpose to provide these services early enough to the child to make a difference (CPR, 2015). 3.1 The Approaches and Interventions Available to Support Individuals with Specific Needs As has been stated above, different approaches and interventions have been crafted to mitigate certain illnesses or conditions. However, these mitigations or measures do vary with the type of condition or special need. This paper will look at people with different special needs including children with sexual problem. The available interventions for children with sexual problems who are mostly referred to as sexual offenders are not quite varied. Most common are the public education and prevention, standard care, continuum of care, special populations, dynamic risk factors, typologies and risk assessment, juvenile law courts. Public education and prevention is aimed at educating the public to increase awareness about the youths and children with sexual behavior problem. The main purpose of public education and prevention was to increase awareness and prevent the sexual abuse before it even happens. It is more preventive in nature. A good example was the STOP IT NOW campaign that was being carried to help get the general public to observe sexual abuse from an elementary prevention point by preventing the would-be sexual offender from becoming so or committing the act (Longo, 2003). Special populations are groups of people that are assign the duty to assess the youth and treat the youth that show the problem of sexual behavior thereby preventing them from becoming sexual offenders in future. Standard care involves developing a standard care for assessment and treatment of youth and children with sexual behavior problems. Then there is the typology and risk assessment which involves developing a typology of children who sexual abuse through systematic assessment. This help in early detection of the problem in children or youths (Longo, 2003). Then there is the typology and risk assessment which aims to develop a typology for children and youths who have sexual behavior problems. this will help in future to determine such children who may show such problems in the future and thereby helping to avoid sexual abuse and providing help to such children early enough (Longo, 2003). Interventions that are used are specific to certain conditions. If the concern is saving on cost of hospital visitation, then there is the intervention that involves training of family members on how to care for such patients with such conditions and then allowing the patient to stay at home and get such services from family members. in fact, Seattle-king county health homes initiatives depends on community health workers to do home visitations to low income families having children with asthma to provide social support services in an attempt to encourage home care of the patients (Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014). Government has also allowed exemption from paying taxes to those hospitals that provide a community benefit equal to the tax amount they are exempted from paying. This arrangement normally goes towards those patients who have no insurance or who are under insured. This is now expanding to also give social needs. These hospitals also give health needs assessment as well as their implementation strategy (Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014). Then there is the social impact bond which aims to serve patients social needs by using private funding in supporting the addressing of complex social problems. Massachusetts prevention and wellness trust fund also give another approach to financing interventions that determines health and awareness activities but which are nonclinical. 3.2 Effectiveness of Intervention Strategies for an Individual with Specific Need(S) Most of the intervention strategies discussed above has so far been positive. Most of the patients do appreciate the care they get at home citing availability of space as compared to hospitals which sometimes have an influx of patients thereby limiting space. Even the chances of a patient contracting another infection at hospitals are much reduced. The hospital insurance funds and the housing projects initiated for the low income families protect them from having to shoulder the huge bills themselves while the houses protect them from contracting illnesses like asthma. So far the interventions are working and yielding positive results to hospitals, patients and their families (Jewel, Downing, & McFarlane, 2009; Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014). 3.3 Potential Impact of Emerging Developments on Support for Individuals with Specific Needs There is a shift from the traditional way of caring for the patient with more concern being put towards factors like patients comfort, safety precautions to the care givers and the patients. Most strategies now aim to keep hospitals less crowded with patient who can be attended to at home. Most families are now trained on how to take care of patients with special needs with the public now aware of the existence of the certain conditions that are called special needs (Tanja de Jong, 2014). 4.0 Strategies for Coping with Challenging Behaviors Associated with Specific Needs 4.1Concept of Challenging Behaviour These are behaviours that may result to risking safety, disrupting and stopping a person from taking part in normal activities and thereby affecting his development and ability to do something (SCIE, 2011). 4.2 Potential Impact of Challenging Behaviour on Health and Social Care Organisation This includes having to train more health workers to handle such patients. This means employment of more personnel which also require more funds. There is also the problem of crowding the services of such institution since most of the patients can’t be handled at home properly. 4.3 Strategies for Working with Challenging Behaviours Associated With Specific Needs The Strategies includes training of more personnel to take care of such patients. There is more online appeal for donation to meet the extra costs of doing the same. However, most strategies being used are more of the same as the government interventions. There is also the community group training for the people as well as public education about challenging behaviours and ways to cope with them (Bachrach, Pfister, Wallis, & Lipson, 2014; SCIE, 2011). Bibliography Bachrach, D., Pfister, H., Wallis, K., & Lipson, M. (2014). Addressing Patients social needs; an emerging business case for provider investment. 7. CPR. (2015). The CPR at a glance. Retrieved June 9th, 2015, from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/about-us/ Fadiman, A. (1997). 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