Health and social care

The present research reports helps in understanding the concept of communication in Health and Social Care (HSC) sector. It also evaluates various methods and theories which help in resolving the issues of inappropriate communication in care firm. Along with this, report also describes the ways for improving communication and impact of legislation, charters and code of practice on this. It also evaluates the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) software package in this care sector.

TASK 1

1.1 Theories of communication to health and social care

There are various types of communication theories which help in improving the interaction process at workplace. These theories are such as operant conditioning, cognitive, humanistic, psychoanalytic and behaviourist learning theory etc. In this, psychoanalytic theory of communication to HSC is discussed below as:

According to Freud, the current theory is based on the behaviour of individuals. In this, behaviour of human is generally shaped by the experience that encounters by him throughout their life events. Individuals tend to deal with various situations consciously but in real manner, it will be driven by their unconscious intuitions. In this, Freud defines that emotions and current feeling are involved in conscious mind. On the other side, past life experiences are included in unconscious mind whereas recollected memory involves in preconscious mind. In this, Freud divides the humans mind in three stages such as ID, ego and super ego. The communication process is based on these three stages of humans (Communication Theory. 2012). This theory represents a base of communication in HSC context. For example, a service user is not able to express his problems in words. In this situation, caring roles or health assistant neglects him then there are chances of occurrence of both unconscious and preconscious mind. This situation creates a communication gap at the workplace of care organisation between service user and caring roles.

Strengths- The strength of this theory is that it enables the patients to interact and communicate with their health professionals with respect to health issues. With the help of this theory, patient easily gets relived with their medical illness symptoms (Gradinger, Britten and Popay, 2015).

Weaknesses- The overall results which are carried out by this theory are quite difficult to measure.

In addition, other is humanistic theory which helps in developing the both hope and positive attitude in care organisation among service user and caring roles. It mainly emphasis on respect and goodness of mankind. By adopting and implementing this theory, care organisation will be able to create friendly, corporate and open environment in order to reduce the chances of communication gap.

1.2 Usage of communication skills

According to given case study, a local day centre in East London provides care and support services to people who have learning disabilities, challenging behaviour and mental health issues. In this, new recruiters use the English as a second language. With the help of effective and clear communication process, health professionals will be able to fulfil the requirements of patients (Arnold and Boggs, 2015). With the help of communication skills, carers will be able to understand the needs of people who have mental health issues and learning disabilities. In order to convey the message, service users can use various tools of communication such as:

Verbal communication

By speaking words, information is delivered to patients. With the help of this method, health care professionals and service user effectively communicate with each other. In case, if a patient is hearing impaired then by speaking words, information cannot be transmitted. In order to resolve this problem, health professionals can use the lip reading mechanism to convey the information (Gallois and Giles, 2015).

Written communication

With the purpose of conveying the information to service users, carers can draw the image or write the content on the paper. Through this, service users will be able to understand the meaning of information.

Non Verbal communication

With the help of this mechanism, health care professional can convey the message by doing facial expressions and body languages. The staff members can use the graphics and images options to deliver the message. In addition, by forming the shapes from hands means sign language's method can be used by health care assistants at the time of offering services to learning disable people.

Body language: Body language is also one of the form of communication in health and social care sector. This helps in expressions and feelings with different body languages. This is one of the most effective ways which can be used in communicating with different people in health and social care organisation. This helps in expressions thoughts and feelings in easier way as compared to verbal form of communication.

Listening: Listening is also a form of communication were employees and service users are engaged in listening activities so that they are able to communicate with the other individuals in more effective manner. Listening is usually practised in meetings and other conferences where a person discusses on a various topic and other members are engaged in listening to him/her so that they can express their views later on.

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1.3 Review of methods of dealing with inappropriate interpersonal communication

In HSC organisation, the situation of interpersonal communication basically arises from the wrong use of vocabulary, sign language symbol or misinterpretation of body languages etc. At workplace of care organisation, the situation of interpersonal interaction mainly leads to communication gap. If the barriers are too strong then, process of communication gets highly affected. As per the given case scenario, it is evaluated that new recruiters mainly uses the English as a second language. This situation creates a communication gap between service user, health professionals and staff members as well. In this context, the barriers of proper communication are such as breach of confidentiality, power, trust, inappropriate language, in congruent message and misinterpretation of message etc. This concept will be understood with the help of one example such as a patient of day care centre belongs to another country then it is obvious that he is unaware of English language. So, at the time of communicating and interacting with patient, health professionals are required to use various types of communication methods non verbal, verbal and written etc. (Piper, McIlwraith and Watson, 2015). In order to convey the message, health professional can convey the message by using sign language but there are chances that meaning of signs may differ in another country. There are more chances that patient misunderstood the meaning of particular sign which creates inappropriate interpersonal communication. In order to understand the requirement of service use, open and clear language is required at the time of communication among health care professionals and service user.

1.4 Strategies that exist to support users of health and social care with complex health needs

In HSC, effective communication is essentially required to fulfil the medical requirements of service users. With the purpose of establishing effective communication at workplace, health care workers require to use various types of strategies. In order to meet the expectations of people who have learning disability, mental health issues, autism, dementia, hearing and visual impaired, few strategies could be used. In this, proper training can be provided to all health professionals and caring roles, so that they can meet and support the patients. The training sessions may include verbal and non verbal methods of communication. After training, all health care workers will be able to effectively interact and communicate with patients by using gestures, facial expressions, sign languages and lip reading mechanism. In addition to this, technology tools such as reading lenses system, Braille system and voice recognition etc. can also be used by workers of HSC sector in order to deliver effective care and support services (Egbert, 2016). Further, other language knowing people can be hired at workplace so that they can work as an inter mediator or a translator between patient of another country and health professionals. In order to resolve the problems related to other languages, care firm can also use the picture exchange communication mechanism in which graphics and video could be provided to patients so that they can understand their medical health situations.

TASK 2

2.1 Communication process is influenced by values and cultures

In health and social care sector, process of communication is mainly influenced by values and culture of both service user and health care professional. In order to attain the target of delivering effective care services to patients, it is essentially required for care firms to respect their culture and values. In this communication process is influenced by both factors are such as:
Culture and Values factor- In care firm, there are many services users who relates to diverse culture. So, it is very important and essential to respect the cultural values of every patient with the purpose of making them satisfied with care firm. In this, difference present not only in culture but also on other things such as background, religion, language and ethnicity etc. Due to large scale of diversification, it is very difficult for caring roles to respect these factors. In this, it is essentially required for care firm to respect the ethnicity and religion of patient in special manner (Gould, Berkowitz and Bronstein, 2015). The reason is if a patient belongs to Muslim religion then they request from care fir to provide Halal food. In this, care organisation has to consider this request in effective manner. In health and social sector, meet the requirements of services users without hurting their cultural values. In respect to gender and age, there are many patients who are old age, children and females etc. By considering the age of patients, caring roles requires to handle accordingly like more attention required by both kids and older people.

2.2 Current and past legislation,

Codes of practice impact on the communication process

Legislations are made by government for the well being of both service user and health professionals. It is a group of various types of laws which helps in improving the life of individuals in effective manner. The department of health information charter, mainly looks after the personal data and informations of health care firms. All the data is stored in more safe and secure manner so that effective services could be provided to them. In addition, data protection act 1998 control the power of both government and organisation in terms of using the personal information of service users. This act ensures that information of all patients are used and accessed in secured way or not. By following this act, care organisation stored the patient's data in more safety way (Baker and Watson, 2015). The confidentiality is maintained because personal information can not be disclosed to any other third party without taking permission of owner. In codes of practice, six Caldicott principle is included. It is applied to handling the identifiable information of service user in effective way. In helps in justifying that why the identifiable personal information of service user is being used by organisation such as situation of transferring them etc. In addition, the discrimination act reduces the chances of discrimination on basis of few grounds such as sex, age, physical disability, religion or culture.

2.3 Effectiveness of organisational

Systems and policies

The effective and good practices of communication process increase the trust and satisfaction among patients in respect to care and support services. The good practices helps in building the building confidence and improving the efficiency of care services effectively. Every care organisation in health and social care sector are required to implement and promote the effective policies which promotes the good communication at workplace. In promoting good practices of communication process, the effectiveness of organisational policies and systems are defined below such as:

Organisational System

It is very important for care firms to maintaining their working environment effectively and appropriately. In care firm, every caring roles and workers have their specific roles and responsibility which contributes in achieving the strategic objectives in relation to offering effective care services to meet the requirements of patients in fast and accurate manner. In order to manage the work effectively, it is essentially required to assign the roles and responsibility to every care worker (Glanz, Rimer and Viswanath, 2015).

Organisational policies

With the purpose of promoting effective communication at workplace, care organisations are required to develop and implement the effective policies. The organisational policies may relates to safe guarding, discrimination, equal growth opportunity and confidentiality etc.

2.4 Ways of improving the communication process in health and social care setting

In health and social care sector to improve the communication system, NHS (National Health Services) takes the initiative to implement RiO system. In this daily progress records of service users are stored with high level of security. With the help of this system, medical records related files can be retrieve and update in fast manner. In order to resolve the problem of communication in respect to other language, care home is required to hire the new recruiter on the basis of English as their first language, qualification and education etc. further there are also several types of ways and methods are present to make the communication more effective and clear in organisation (Rosse, Essink-Bot and Wagner, 2015). In this, methods such as verbal, non verbal, written, one to one and group discussion etc. along with this, to make the communication more effective and interesting, health care professionals can convey the information in form of video, graphics and presentation. Further, the care organisations also required to follow the laws and policies in respect to improving communication process at workplace. The regular training can be provided to all health care workers and person with a knowledge of other languages van be hire as a staff member.

TASK 3

3.1 How to use and access standard ICT software packages at workplace

In nature, information technology is a type of umbrella which holds various applications, communication devices, software, hardware networking and satellite systems etc. In present time ICT (In formation Communication technology) is used in many things such as libraries, education and healthy care organisation etc. According to given case scenario, it can be defines that ICT package support this sector in many ways such as data analysis, spread sheet and power point presentation etc. In order to use their software package, internet connection is essentially required. In this without connecting with internet, this software can not be used. I use the Digital Blood Pressure device at my workplace which helps in measuring the blood pressure counts of patients in more accurate manner. In relation to this, it is also important for me to store their medical records (Robson and Robinson, 2015). For this purpose, I use the spreadsheet and database tools. Further, to convey the information to other colleagues at my workplace, I also use the power point presentation method. In this various images and diagrams van be attached which makes the information more useful and presentable. It is very helpful in defining and explaining the things to others through charts and images. In addition, to communicate with my other members, I use the electronic mail method. It helps in improving the communication level at my workplace because by using this all staff members can easily and effectively communicate with each other (Callaghan and McBride, 2015).

3.2 Benefits of using ICT software packages in health and social care

In health and social care, various types of benefits can be get by suing the ICT software package. In this, benefits are such as flexibility, security and reliability etc. This also helps in increasing the effectiveness, efficiency and capabilities of staff members. It also maintains good communication and healthy relationship among service users, health professionals and staff members of care firm. Buy using this ICT software method, chances of medical errors also reduces and it also improves the quality of treatment services. By using the database option, it helps in storing and maintaining the medical records data of patient in easy manner. For the security purpose, passwords can be set on data base so that any other person can not access and misuse the personal information of patients (Piper, McIlwraith and Watson, 2015). By using the enterprise resource planning mechanism, care firms are able to keep a close eye on their performance. It updates daily informations in respect to project progress, work effectiveness, project status and employees performance etc. The advance feature of taking automatic backup at daily manner helps in regaining the all important lost data and informations.

3.3 Impact of legal consideration with respect to ICT in health and social care organisation

In order to use the ICT package in health and social care sector, wide varieties of legal laws and acts are required to be considered. This ICT software package entails both advantages and disadvantages. The over and ineffective usage of this results to cause many issues which may relates to arm injury, back pain due to poor sitting posture and eyesight problem. In order to resolve the problems which are related to ICT software use, care firms are required to follow one act that is known as Misuse of Computer Act, 1990 (Slawomirski and Iedema, 2015). With the help of this act, all employees of care firms are advised to use it in an appropriate and in limited way. Along with this, to make the health workers and services users more safe and secure, care firms are required to follow health and safety act. Further, as per this data protection act, cited firm has to take the permissions to owner in order to disclose his personal information in front of third party.

CONCLUSION

With the help of this present research report it is articulated that communication process plays a vital role sector of health and social care. In order to deal and interact with service users, it is essential for health experts to have the effective communication skills. In addition to this, they can also use various theories and methods at the time of conveying the information to patients. On other side, to make the work more effective, care firms can also use the ICT soft ware packages.

REFERENCES

• Gradinger, F., Britten, N. and Popay, J., 2015. Values associated with public involvement in health and social care research: a narrative review. Health Expectations. 18(5). pp.661-675.
• Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
• Gallois, C. and Giles, H., 2015. Communication accommodation theory. The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction.
• Wood, J., 2015. Interpersonal communication: Everyday encounters. Nelson Education.
• Egbert, N., 2016. Communication, Spirituality, and Health. The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication.
• Glanz, K., Rimer, B.K. and Viswanath, K. eds., 2015. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice. John Wiley & Sons.
• Rosse, F., Essink-Bot, M.L. and Wagner, C., 2015. Language barriers and patient safety risks in hospital care. A mixed methods study. International journal of nursing studies.
• Robson, A. and Robinson, L., 2015. The Information Seeking and Communication Model: A study of its practical application in healthcare. Journal of Documentation. 71(5). pp.1043-1069.
• Piper, D., McIlwraith, J. and Watson, N., 2015. The role of the law in communicating patient safety. Communicating Quality and Safety in Health Care, p.316.
• Slawomirski, L. and Iedema, R., 2015. Communicating about how the safety and quality of care are regulated. Communicating Quality and Safety in Health Care, p.282.
• Callaghan, P. and McBride, P., 2015. UK mental health legislation. Oxford Handbook of Mental Health Nursing,

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