Developing as a Practitioner: Ethical and Legal Considerations Report

This report delves into the ethical and legal responsibilities of healthcare practitioners, focusing on safeguarding older adults and addressing mental capacity issues. It examines ethical principles such as protection, empowerment, proportionality, and partnership, alongside relevant legislative frameworks including the Care Act 2014, Data Protection Act, Equality Act 2010, and Social Care Act 2008. The report emphasizes the importance of informed consent, autonomy, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in caring for patients with declining mental abilities, ensuring their protection from harm and upholding their best interests. References to existing literature support the discussion, providing a comprehensive overview of the ethical and legal landscape of healthcare practice.

Running head: DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
Developing As a Practitioner
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
Section 1: Safeguarding Adults
Introduction:
In this section, the ethical considerations and professional behaviors that can be
considered in order to safeguard older adults would be discussed. The discussion would be in
the light of the case scenario of an occupational therapist working with a 67 year old lady.
The ethical considerations and expected professional behaviors that are stipulated under
various policies and legislatures are discussed below:
Discussion:
According to Ingham-Broomfield (2017) and Mahieu et al. (2017), some important
ethical considerations that a professional should have while working with elderly clients and
patients are protection (taking prompt actions if patient’s safety is compromised and
considering their welfare and needs, helping them or safeguarding them from abuse and
neglect), empowerment (respecting the individuality, privacy and dignity of the patient and
supporting the patients to care for themselves and maintain their health), proportionality
(maintaining the confidentiality of patient information, ensuring lawful handling of patient
data, ensure minimal disclosure of information), partnership (providing the patient all options
for treatment and using ways of communication that the patient can understand, listening to
what the patients have to say, taking into account that they think and responding to their
questions with honesty, keeping the patient well informed and updated on their treatment or
therapy) (Chung et al. 2016; Day et al. 2016).
In addition to the ethical principles, there are various legislative frameworks and
policies that aims to maintain ethical and professional practice among healthcare
professionals. The Care Act 2014 outlines those statutory responsibilities of the integration

2DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
of support and care between the local authorities like Clinical Commissioning Group, and
healthcare organizations like NHS England and the partnership aims to promote the
wellbeing of older adults by ensuring prevention or reduction of harm to them or to the risks
of abuse and neglect, supporting them to make independent choices, promoting the chances
of favorable outcomes for them, increasing public awareness about their welfare and helping
to identify and stop instances of elder abuse (Department of Health 2014). The Data
Protection Act ensures the safety of patient data and protected the patient from the misuse
and theft of the data, as well as maintaining its confidentiality. This act implies the healthcare
professionals to take necessary actions to prevent disclosure of the patient data unlawfully
and prevent misuse of patient information (Carey 2018). The Equality Act 2010 safeguards
individuals against abuse or discrimination on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity,
nationality disabilities or religious beliefs (Foster 2015). Social care Act 2008 also has
provisions for care of elderly people in the community and support the improvement of the
health and wellbeing. In addition, policies such as Multi Agency Policy and Procedures,
Standards of Safety and Quality, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards further helps to enhance
the safety, quality, responsiveness and equity of care provided to the elderly people and
therefore should be considered by the occupational therapist (Care Quality Commission
2017).
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that in order to protect the wellbeing of older adults, the
healthcare professional should have several important considerations related to his/her ethical
and professional responsibilities which includes ethical standards and important acts such as
Care Act 2014, Data Protection Act, Equality Act and Social Care Act 2008.
Section 2: Mental capacity and Consent

3DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
Introduction:
In the given case scenario, the 67 year old lady (the patient) is in a deteriorating state
of mental condition as reported by her son and daughter in law. She is forgetful and might be
at a risk of dementia and associated risk factors. It is important that ethical and professional
responsibilities associated with the mental capacity and consent of the patient be discussed,
which has been done next.
Discussion:
Riordan et al. (2015) suggested that one of the most important ethical as well as
professional duty of healthcare professionals is to seek informed consent from the patent and
support their autonomy in their decisions, sharing with them all the information needed to
give an informed consent. Ethical aspects such as beneficence, non-malfeasance, justice and
autonomy of the patient should be considered by the healthcare professional’s while caring
for elderly patient. Also, the career should also focus on maintaining the independence,
quality of life and ability to perform their activities of daily living. For patients with cognitive
problems, the carer should also identify a surrogate decision maker who can make decisions
on behalf of the patient (Chung et al. 2016).
Various acts also helps to provide security to individuals with reduced mental
capacity and elderly people with mental health problems. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is
an important consideration in this scenario since the patient is showing signs of deteriorating
mental capacity and therefore is in need of special protection. The act implies that a
healthcare professional should never assume that a patient lacks mental capacity unless
proven otherwise, take every possible step to support people to make their own decisions,
never consider wrong decisions as the evidence of a lack of mental capacity, making
decisions or taking actions in the best interest of the patient and ensuring that the least

4DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
restrictive treatment option is used for the intervention or treatment (Harding et al. 2017).
The Care Act 2014 also outlines the responsibility of healthcare professionals to ensure the
safety and quality of care for the elderly patients and thus is another important consideration
in this case scenario (Romeo et al. 2017). These considerations also imply that the actions of
the healthcare provider must be based upon best evidences from professional practice and
after thorough evaluation of the strategy and after obtaining informed consent from the
patient. It is also important to note that the policies regarding the safety of patient’s clinical
data is also applicable to this case scenario since misuse of information related to patient’s
mental health can adversely affect the patient and therefore it is vital to ensure its security and
confidentiality (Ingham-Broomfield 2017).
Conclusion:
It can therefore be concluded that for patients with declining mental abilities and
advancing age the different legal and ethical practices related to aged care, care safety and
mental health policies ensure that the patient is protected from any harm, including the
misuse of their information and mistreatment of abuse from others. Such considerations can
ensure that the occupational therapist works towards the best interest of the patient.

5DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
References:
Care Quality Commission, 2017. Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities)
Regulations 2014: Regulation 9.
Carey, P., 2018. Data protection: a practical guide to UK and EU law. Oxford University
Press, Inc..
Chung, J., Demiris, G. and Thompson, H.J., 2016. Ethical considerations regarding the use of
smart home technologies for older adults: an integrative review. Annual review of nursing
research, 34(1), pp.155-181.
Day, M.R., Leahy-Warren, P. and McCarthy, G., 2016. Self-neglect: Ethical considerations.
Annual Review of Nursing Research, 34(1), pp.89-107.
Department of Health, 2014. Care and Support Statutory Guidance Issued under the Care Act
2014.
Foster, R., 2015. Does the Equality Act 2010 ensure equality for individuals with Asperger
syndrome in the legal arena?: A survey of recent UK case law. Autonomy, the Critical
Journal of Interdisciplinary Autism Studies, 1(4).
Harding, C., Buchari, S., Benato, R. and Levin, A., 2017. Mental Capacity Act (2005):
Enabling student learning through teaching provided by service users who use augmentative
and alternative communication. Communication Matters, 31(3), pp.17-19.
Ingham-Broomfield, R., 2017. A nurses' guide to ethical considerations and the process for
ethical approval of nursing research. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 35(1),
p.40.

6DEVELOPING AS A PRACTITIONER
Mahieu, L., Anckaert, L. and Gastmans, C., 2017. Intimacy and sexuality in institutionalized
dementia care: clinical-ethical considerations. Health Care Analysis, 25(1), pp.52-71.
Riordan, F., Papoutsi, C., Reed, J.E., Marston, C., Bell, D. and Majeed, A., 2015. Patient and
public attitudes towards informed consent models and levels of awareness of Electronic
Health Records in the UK. International journal of medical informatics, 84(4), pp.237-247.
Romeo, L., Lawson, J., Stanley, T., Taylor, M., Tapper, L., Gunner, J., Carr, S., Hafford-
Letchfield, T., Baker, D., Bateman, F. and Manthorpe, J., 2017. Safeguarding Adults Under
the Care Act 2014: Understanding Good Practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.