Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare Services

The assignment discusses the case of Alice, a patient struggling with kidney failure and tuberculosis, and the ethical dilemmas that arise when providing healthcare services to her. It highlights the need for social workers and caregivers to provide appropriate medical treatment and therapies while also addressing Alice's mental health concerns and dignity. The document emphasizes the importance of considering ethical implications in decision-making and provides references to relevant literature and online resources.

Principles of Health and
Social Care Practice Unit 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Application of principle of support in the health and social care practice.......................1
1.2 Procedures to protect Alice, her children's and NHS care staff teams in the context of
Health and social care.............................................................................................................2
1.3 Benefit of personal centred services provision to Alice...................................................2
1.4 Nature of ethical dilemmas that can conflict the care service that is provided to Alice.. 3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

LO 1.
1.1 Application of principle of support in the health and social care practice.
There are many organisations in the health and social care services which tends to
provide healthcare services to people in need. Generally, principle of support is used to ensure
that the individual that are being taken care in Health and social care settings are supported on
the basis of their principle and identity (Munn-Giddings and Winter, 2013). The principle of
support provided in social and health care practice helps in the identification of problem from
which patients are suffering and provide them with health care facilities to come up from the
situation. They provide patients with knowledge regarding and deliver personalised and flexible
care for their welfare and effective treatment (Brett and et.al., 2014). They social workers and
carers who provide the principle of support also promote the dignity of the patients along with
respect by maintaining their confidentiality and integrity. This principle of support also value the
individual’s knowledge and experience. Through the application of this principle the appropriate
safety of the patients is maintained through the proper assessment of the risk and providing them
with effective support. The legal law are also maintained that’s ensure the equality to all the
patients which are in need of principle of support (Policies and Procedures for Healthcare
Organizations: A Risk Management Perspective, 2017).
In this particular example Alice is receiving the medical support from many NHS agencies
that indicates the principle of support in which there is delivery of personalised care on the basis
of individual’s identity. She also gets dialysis treatment at home due to her kidney failure and is
also prescribed with 6 tablets a day for the treatment of the TB. This is also an example of the
principle of support in which the individual confidentiality is prime objective and is provided
with the best possible care along with maintaining the dignity (Riekert, Ockene and Pbert, 2013).
Thus it promote the dignity through the maintenance of integrity and provide value to the Alice’s
knowledge and experience. Effective communication is a key in principle of support an in this
case, the social worker has refereed Alice to visit the NHS psychologist along with this he also
secures Alice’s agreement for participating in the Family Group Conference. Thus, by involving
patient in some activity can help in improving the risk management that increases the persons
independences and help them in taking decision regarding the change in their lifestyle
1

(Mechanic, McAlpine and Rochefort, 2013). This provides appropriate understanding regarding
principle of support.
1.2 Procedures to protect Alice, her children's and NHS care staff teams in the context of Health
and social care.
The procedure that can help Alice, her children and NHS care staff members is multi-
dimensional. Advanced training can protect the NHS care staff by preventing them from
committing any mistake in care services that they provide to Alice. Along with this NHS care
staff can also be acknowledge regarding the laws and principles in order to maintain the safety of
the Alice. By providing Mark with mental health services, can help in protecting Alice from
getting hurt by violent action of Mark and depression that can aid in improvement of her medical
condition. As Mark tends to hurt the Alice and this also deteriorate the relation of Alice with her
other children’s. Thus providing Mark with mental health care service can not only improve the
health condition of Alice but also helps in protecting relationship between the Alice and her two
children's Tom and Lucy by reducing tension from her family. The provision of health care
services and principle of support not only improve the condition of Alice but also help in
building the confidence by involving her into risk management activities, encouraging her to take
decision related to her lifestyle and setting new goals to live the happy life. Also, by involving
Alice in various Family related conference can protect her from increased feeling of depression.
Another aspect is regulation that can protect Alice and her children from her increasing medical
issues with the provision of framework by NHS care staff.
1.3 Benefit of personal centred services provision to Alice.
Carl Rogers developed the concept of personal centred care approach in which the
patients who need health and medical services have right to develop and monitor care plan that
meet all their needs. In this approach the consumer of the care and care provider both can take
part in the decision making related to the provision of the services and its delivery (Healy and
Reynolds, 2017). Through this service Alice can develop the health care plan in accordance to
her requirement. It also help Alice in getting the responsive and flexible services to meet the
needs for getting cure from the ongoing problems. This also provide Alice to have greater control
on her life through making the choice of care she wants and when it should be delivered. By
applying this approach social worker and service provider help Alice in achieving long-term
goal. This approach help in the identification of areas that need immediate improvement and then
2

plan for the type of care that can be provided to patients. Alice can use this service to overcome
her feeling of depression that she is facing due to her illness and Mark's erratic behaviour. She
can also plan with social care provider regarding the effective treatment of TB. Social workers
and care providers can provide Alice with appropriate medical treatment and necessary therapies
to get rid of TB in effective manner. She is also suffering from the kidney failure so by the help
of personal centre care she can plan her dialysis on the basis of her needs. Through this approach
she can get appropriate dialysis treatment along with maintaining the confidentiality and dignity.
1.4 Nature of ethical dilemmas that can conflict the care service that is provided to Alice.
One can understand by the term ethical dilemma that, it is a situation in which a choice is
to be made between two available options but none of the option can resolve the situation in
ethical way (Aveyard, 2014). The ethical dilemma that has been identified in the case of Alice is,
she is provided with treatment from the social worker due to her failed kidney and prevalence of
TB. She is regularly diagnosed by the social worker and also provided with dialysis treatment
and prescribed with tablets for the treatment of TB. But on the other hand, she is suffering from
the depression due to the Mark's behaviour and her illness this in turn cut down the effect of
treatment that she is getting from the social worker along with this Alice is also denying for
attending the Family Group Conference.
Thus, the dilemma that results in the conflict in provision of health services is, Alice is
given medical supports long with the effective communication for attending the programmes that
can help in overcoming her situation but her thinking about her son is making her condition
worst due to increased feeling of depression. Thus there is need to provide the Mark with mental
health services as it will help in reduction of stress from the mind of Alice. This further help in
improving the condition of Alice by the reduction of feeling of depression.
3

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aveyard, H., 2014. Doing a literature review in health and social care: A practical guide.
McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Brett, J. and et.al., 2014. Mapping the impact of patient and public involvement on health and
social care research: a systematic review. Health Expectations. 17(5). Pp.637-650.
Healy, S. and Reynolds, B., 2017. Social policy in Ireland: principles, practice and
problems. Health.
Mechanic, D., McAlpine, D. D. and Rochefort, D. A., 2013. Mental health and social policy:
Beyond managed care. Pearson Higher Ed.
Munn-Giddings, C. and Winter, R., 2013. A handbook for action research in health and social
care. Routledge.
Riekert, K. A., Ockene, J. K. and Pbert, L. eds., 2013. The handbook of health behavior change.
Springer Publishing Company.
Online
Policies and Procedures for Healthcare Organizations: A Risk Management Perspective. 2017.
[Online]. Available through <https://www.psqh.com/analysis/policies-and-procedures-
for-healthcare-organizations-a-risk-management-perspective/>. [Accessed on 5th October
2017].
4