Working in Health and Social Partnership: Philosophies, Models, Legislations, and Potential Barriers

Running head- UNIT 5
Working in health and Social partnership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

UNIT 5
Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.1........................................................................................................................................2
Task 2.2........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2.1........................................................................................................................................4
Task 2.2........................................................................................................................................5
Task 2.3........................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.1........................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.2........................................................................................................................................8
Task 3.3........................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11
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UNIT 5
TASK 1
Task 1.1
The term health and social care is used to refer to a set of integrated services that are
utilized by healthcare service providers with the aim of providing assistance to their clients while
ensuring and preserving their safety and dignity. There are different philosophies that underlie
the concept of partnerships in the healthcare setting. The philosophies are based on
independence, empowerment, autonomy, equity and informed decision making.
Independence refers to a situation where the concerned organization or individual is free
from any orders, controls, influence or threats from other organizations. The independence level
is an essential philosophy in partnership as it determines whether the organization has the
discretionary power to make major decisions related to their patients, without being influenced
(Glasby and Dickinson 2014). Thus, the organization should not depend on the services of other
related organizations for formulating care plans for a patient. I found that in the case scenario,
the involved healthcare professionals did not display enough independent activity, which led in
poor health outcomes among the patients.
The philosophy of empowerment focuses on allowing the service providers and the
receiver to control the range of services that are bring delivered in the form of medical support.
This provides the patients equal rights to decide what treatment plans will be administered upon
them. The patients should have been empowered or given an upper hand to make important
clinical choices in the hospital to achieve an efficient partnership (Corinne Brown 2012).
Autonomy philosophy illustrates the presence of self governance that provides
individuals the freedom to control and govern the health activities. Thus, this philosophy states
that all relevant information must be provided to the partners to help them take self decisions.
This prevents use of any unethical means. I found that the patients and healthcare professionals
did not have autonomy, which resulted in adverse outcomes (Dowling, Powell and Glendinning
2004).
Equity promotes equal distribution of resources and opportunities to all people for
improving the overall wellbeing. All clients should get equal provisions of using the available
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UNIT 5
health services. There was lack of equity in this case scenario that prevented proper health
maintenance.
Informed decision making allows the concerned organizations or individuals to inform
each other before any important decision is taken. Decisions that are related to altering health
parameters or diagnostic criteria should always be mentioned to all partners. There was lack of
informed decision making in this case.
Hence, I can state that the philosophies that govern partnership were not adequately
followed in the case.
Task 2.2
Most partners work towards a common goal of improving the health of their patients,
facilitating their quick recovery and reducing the length of hospital stays. The primary benefit of
partnership is based on equal distribution of workload between different practitioners according
to their clinical expertise. Another advantage lies in the fact that the service users or the patients
get the opportunity to utilize a combination of health services from the concerned organization.
This is most commonly observed among the elderly who are often provided services from both
the health organization and social care homes that form a partnership with the former
(Merrifield, Ford and Stephenson, 2017).
However, there are some disadvantages of such partnership as well. Complexity acts as
an important barrier. This can be attributed to the fact that partnership often involves two
organizations or groups that consist of several individuals. This increases the number of
healthcare professionals, staff and the service users (patients), each of whom may have different
perspectives. This adds to the complexity. The difference in opinion of the stakeholders also
creates conflicts. Thus, an effective collaboration and presence of a stringent administration s
required to manage all the stakeholders (Ford, 2017).
Another barrier related to partnership is the development of cultural issues among the
members involved. Cultural mismatch often leads to the failure of a prospective alliance. In the
case study, I observed that the local authorities and the healthcare organization were the major
partners. However, while the organization worked towards improving the short term health
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