Effective Communication in Health and Social Care: An In-depth Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of communication within health and social care settings. It examines relevant communication theories, emphasizing their practical application in improving patient care. The report discusses the importance of communication skills, methods for addressing inappropriate interpersonal communication, and strategies for supporting service users with specific communication needs. Furthermore, it explores how values, cultural factors, legislation, charters, and codes of practice influence the communication process. The effectiveness of organizational systems and policies in promoting good communication practices is evaluated, along with suggestions for improvement. The report also covers the use of ICT in health and social care, including the benefits and legal considerations. The document uses the case study of Joanna, highlighting the challenges arising from language barriers and the need for culturally sensitive communication approaches.

COMMUNICATING IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1..............................................................................................................................................3
LO1...................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 RELEVANT THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION IN CONTEXT TO HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE...3
1.2 USE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN A HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE.....................................4
1.3 METHODS OF DEALING WITH INAPPROPRIATE INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SETTINGS..............................................5
1.4 THE USE OF STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT USERS OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES
WITH SPECIFIC COMMUNICATION NEEDS..................................................................................6
LO2...................................................................................................................................................7
2.1 THE WAYS IN WHICH COMMUNICATION PROCESS IS INFLUENCED BY VALUES AND
CULTURAL FACTORS....................................................................................................................7
2.2 THE WAY LEGISLATION, CHARTERS AND CODES OF PRACTICE IMPACT ON THE
COMMUNICATION PROCESS IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE.......................................................8
2.3 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS AND POLICIES IN PROMOTING GOOD
PRACTICE IN COMMUNICATION..................................................................................................9
2.4 WAYS OF IMPROVING THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS IN A HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
SETTING.....................................................................................................................................10
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................11
LO3.................................................................................................................................................11
3.1 ACCESS AND USE STANDARD ICT SOFTWARE PACKAGES TO SUPPORT WORK IN HEALTH
AND SOCIAL CARE......................................................................................................................11
3.2 THE BENEFITS OF USING ICT IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE FOR USERS OF SERVICES, CARE
WORKERS AND CARE ORGANIZATIONS.....................................................................................12

3.3 ANALYZE HOW LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USE OF ICT IMPACT ON HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE..............................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Communication is the process in which contact is made with other people so that their
requirements and demands could be recognized. It includes receiving and sending of messages
through an uninterrupted cycle. While communication skill means the capability and
competence to deliver appropriate information to another individual, this must be clear and
completely understood by the listener. This assignment explains the importance of
communication in any health and social care home to ease the difficulties of the care users.
Furthermore, this assignment critically evaluates different types of theories of communication
that must be adopted in the care homes and the communication skills that the care workers
must possess. This assignment will be based on the case study of Joanna who had to face
communication problems in a care home due to language barriers. Also, this report evaluates
the significance of an appropriate organizational system and the policies associated with a
communication that must be implemented in health and social care homes to promote
effective communication. Lastly, this report analyzes the importance of the ICT software
packages and the benefits related to it in the care homes along with the way legal
considerations play an important role in utilizing ICT software's in health and social care homes.

TASK 1
LO1
1.1 RELEVANT THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION IN CONTEXT TO HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE
The theory of communication helps to study the technical procedure of delivering information
and effectively managing the human communication process. With regards to HSC, there is
much need for effective communication among the service users and the caregivers. Out of
several theories of communication few are discussed here:
 HUMANISTIC THEORY: This theory is used adopted in the case where a person's respect,
honour and dignity is included as in case of Joanna she was mistreated by the nurses and
her self-esteem was hurt (Rahman, 2014). This theory could be attained when any person
is approached in a positive way and also helps in analyzing the nature of any person.
 SOCIAL THEORY: This theory is based on the knowledge of the social factors and helps in
socializing with individuals in different types of environment.
 COGNITIVE THEORY: This type of theory is adopted immediately after identifying the
requirements and demands of the care users or according to the conditions.
 Behavioural THEORY: This theory supports in dealing according to the behaviour of the
care users and helps to understand their attitude towards other matters. This explains the
mental condition of people (Rogers, 2016). In case of Joanna, the behavioural theory of
communication must be applied where her language could be a barrier and the caregiver
must try and understand her behaviour and deal with her patiently.

1.2 USE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN A HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
To provide proper facilities and services to the care users in health and social care homes there
are several types of communication skills that is needed that involves spoken or verbalized type
of communication, using the sign language for patients who has hearing or speech difficulties
like in the case study of Joanna, by recognizing the body language of the care users, lip as well
as face reading, in order to understand their demands or issues properly questioning to the
patients etc. (Kurtz, et al. 2017). To provide needed services to the patients it is must for the
care users to clearly understand the demands of patients and for this, they must properly
communicate with the care users by using appropriate communication skills as well as a
properly drafted care plan. In the case study of Joanna, the nurses and the doctors could not
clearly communicate with her due to the language barrier that stressed her even more. The
nurse and doctor had a very poor communication skill as they could not recognize the pain that
Joanna was facing and was trying to explain by sign language and without understanding her
problem doctor suggested few tests to her. All this happened because of poor communication
competency of staff and doctors; if they could understand the sign language of Joanna it would
easily help to diagnosis her problem and provide her right treatment.

1.3 METHODS OF DEALING WITH INAPPROPRIATE INTERPERSONAL
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
SETTINGS
The interpersonal communication means interchanging information among two or more
individuals. Improper communication leads to many problems and also could be a reason for
influencing the entire work process of care homes. Inappropriate interpersonal communication
could lead to a misapprehension of the information that is the caregivers could not properly
understand the information given by service users and it could be misunderstood. The other is
using the wrong language could act as a communication barrier. The methods that must be
adopted in care homes to deal with the problem of inappropriate interpersonal communication
are:
 Using non-verbal means of communication that is carried out by using proper signs,
gestures as well as a facial expression that solves the barrier of language issue at the time
of interpersonal communication.
 To carry out appropriate monitoring in the behaviour of both care users and service
providers working in the care homes (Caughlin, et al. 2016).
 The management of the care homes must adopt new and latest technology as effective
communication techniques, should hire well-trained workers so that this problem could be
resolved.
 The use of non-verbal and verbal communication skills that helps to understand the
requirements of the care users so that needed aid could be given to them.

1.4 THE USE OF STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT USERS OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE SERVICES WITH SPECIFIC COMMUNICATION NEEDS
There is must need to adopt appropriate strategies to support the care users using the services
of the care homes so that any kind of barrier in the communication could be removed. The
foremost strategy is to provide a proper comfort zone to the care users and properly listening
to their needs so that it could be implemented. The strategies must be made according to the
needs of service users that support them such as in a situation of disability where the patient is
unable to express the care providers must try to understand the gestures or through face
reading and also by using sign language (Naslund, et al. 2016). As in the case study of Joanna,
she was not able to hear and speak the care workers must have tried to understand her body
language and the signs she was using to explain her pain. Also the management of the care
home must conduct training programs that would help the care users to learn different
languages so that people belonging to different culture who come for treatment in care homes
must not face difficulty in communicating as in case of Joanna she was from Vietnam and could
not understand English language and nobody in the care home could understand Vietnamese
that becomes the matter of concern at the time of communication.

LO2
2.1 THE WAYS IN WHICH COMMUNICATION PROCESS IS INFLUENCED BY
VALUES AND CULTURAL FACTORS
Effective communication is the key element in maintaining proper working if health and social
care homes especially when it comes to cultural beliefs and minority in language. Cultural
factors consist knowledge about a person’s traditions, beliefs, customs, habits etc. The values,
as well as cultural factors that affect the overall process of communication in health and social
care homes, are:
 AGE: Age is a major factor that must be kept in concern while communicating with the care
users as the ways of interaction with kids and older people vary majorly. The elderly
patients like Joanna must be given due respect self-respect are not hurt (Samovar, et al.
2015). As Joanna was an aged woman and the staff of the care home was mistreating with
her that affected her self-respect such practices must be taken in concern in care homes.
 GENDER: The female care users must be provided special care as they are extremely
sensitive physically as well as emotionally. The female patients must be given female
nurses who should look after them so that there comfort zone is maintained.
 BELIEFS: It is not necessary that every patient in care homes have a similar culture, beliefs
hence it is the duty of the caregivers to respect the beliefs of each patient no matter how
different it is from their culture (Matsumoto and Juang, 2016). The care users must be
given full freedom to preach their own beliefs and practice their religion.

2.2 THE WAY LEGISLATION, CHARTERS AND CODES OF PRACTICE IMPACT ON
THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
There are several laws and regulations that are made by the government of UK so that there is
proper control in the functioning of the care homes. In the HSC several laws implemented
enhances the working practice and the codes of practice help in denoting a proper conduct of
the care workers in accomplishing the demands of the care users. The laws that have its
influence in the process of communication in HSC are discrimination act, data protection act,
health and safety act which are discussed below:
 DISCRIMINATION ACT: The discrimination act consists of laws like disability discrimination
act, Sex discrimination act etc. In any HSC any patients or employees must not be
discriminated on any grounds such as gender, race, religion, caste, creed, disability etc. as
it impacts on the entire communication process by putting limits in gestures, facial
expression etc. that indicates discrimination on any point (Soutphommasane, 2015).
 DATA PROTECTION ACT, 1998: This acts limits the sharing of information that is regarding
the patients and could affect their confidentiality. Hence the care workers are not allowed
to share any private details about the patients to anyone before prior permission of the
patients. This influences the process of communication giving due respect to the
confidential details about patients.

2.3 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS AND POLICIES IN
PROMOTING GOOD PRACTICE IN COMMUNICATION
The health and social care homes must ensure that every employee in the care home known
the principles in which the functioning is carried out in a care home as well as their
accountabilities as the care workers so that the care users could be given services according to
their needs. The organizational system and the policies that are implemented in the care homes
are effective enough to promote the development of the care home. The adoption of proper
communication methods shows the well-managed code of conduct of the employees and the
management of the HSC (Ford, 2014). The process of communication should be in a way that
has transparency and is clear to understand for the care workers and it could only be done with
the help of proper organizational system as well as properly drafted policies. The organizational
system and the policies must include annual appraisals for the workers that the performance of
the care workers their behaviour everything must be monitored timely and must make sure
that all the policies are being followed including proper communication and safe health and
social practices. Also, the staff must be trained so that any less effort by the employees that are
making difference in desired and actual performance could be observed and later managed. All
these organizational system and policies help in promoting proper communication process and
effective working of the health and social care centre.

2.4 WAYS OF IMPROVING THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS IN A HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE SETTING
There are several approaches that support in enhancing the communication system in the
health and social care homes. These methods must be implemented by the management of
care homes to deliver proper services to the care users, those methods include:
 NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION AND TRAINING: The training must be given to the care
users so that they could understand different types of language as in case study of Joanna
the nurse and the doctor failed to understand her language that enabled doctors to
properly diagnose her illness. Also, the care worker must get training or understand sign
language, facial expressions, gestures so that the communication could be carried out in an
effective manner.
 FEEDBACK FORMS THE PATIENTS: The feedback forms acts as key tools that help in
enhancing the communication system in any health and social care centres. The factors
such as behaviour and the method of communication of an individual help in the annual
performance appraisal that also encourages individuals to communicate to other people
freely (Certo, 2015). The feedbacks forms must be provided to both the service users as
well as providers in order to recognize their views and areas of improvement in the HSC.
The service users must be asked regarding the communicating done by the staff of the care
homes, there way of dealing them, behaviour and if any negative comments are observed
the corrections must be made on immediate grounds.