Principle of Care: Implementation in Health and Social Care Practice

This essay delves into the principle of care within health and social care, analyzing its practical implementation. It explores key principles like autonomy, confidentiality, equity, and respect, highlighting their significance in delivering quality care. The essay examines the relationship between these principles and relevant laws and policies, such as the Data Protection Act and the Equality Act. Furthermore, it discusses the application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in relation to autonomy and how healthcare professionals can manage challenging behaviors while upholding ethical standards. The boundaries of care and their connection to the core principles are also addressed, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject.

Running head: PRINCIPLE OF CARE
Principle of Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................2
Discussion...................................................................................................................................2
Principles of care and their importance.................................................................................2
Relation of the “Principle of Care” with relevant law of policy.............................................4
Right and Autonomy..............................................................................................................5
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs...................................................................................................6
Issue of risk management and challenging behaviour..........................................................8
Boundaries of Care.................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The health and social care is guided by different principle of care. The following essay
aims to analyse how these principle of care is implemented in health and social care
practice. The essay will focus on the principle of autonomy, confidentially and equality.
Furthermore, the essay will also highlight theorist and knowledge which is associated with
the five dimensions of the principle of care. The essay will specifically highlight the
government policy and guidelines which are associated with the principle of care of
confidentiality, autonomy and equality. Finally, the essay will explain the relation of the
Maslow hierarchy needs with the principle of care of autonomy and how the behaviours of
the health and social professionals helps in handling service users with challenging
behaviour and thereby helping to uphold the ethical principle of autonomy. The boundaries
of care and its relation to the principle of care will be highlighted at the end.
Discussion
Principles of care and their importance
The Principles of Care in health and social care underpin the work of everyone in
health, social care and in the early years of services. The principles of care mainly influence
the working practices of the healthcare workers in delivering quality care. According to
Cuthbert and Quallington (2008), all the health and social care professionals are require to
abide by the principle of care while working with the individuals in order to make sure that
the service users receive optimal care and support. Cuthbert and Quallington (2008)
highlighted that the principle of care is mainly guided by 5 different dimensions and this
includes choice, autonomy, confidentiality, equity and respect.

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Choice deals with acknowledging the diversity and uniqueness of an individual.
Mikesell, Bromley and Khodyakov (2013) stated that the “Choice” as a principle of care deals
with involving individual into the decision making process in the therapy plan or the process
of care. This approach of “Choice” finds the co-relation with the “autonomy” as another
principle of care. “autonomy” means allowing an individual an opportunity to think, decide
and to act independently. It enables an individual to have supreme control over one’s life
and determining the lifestyle. It helps to increase the concept of self-esteem and thereby
helping to improve the overall health-related quality of life of the service users. The
principle of care, “confidentiality” is regarded as the basic right or an obligation of an service
users. This basic right is the personal information of the service users kept confidential. The
act of confidentiality is protected by the Data Protect Act and Patient’ Charter and
Community Care Charters (Mikesell, Bromley and Khodyakov 2013). Cuthbert and
Quallington (2008) are of the opinion that act of confidentiality provides the patients a
assurance that their private or personal information will be kept confidential and this in turn
encourage them to freely open up in front of the service givers and thereby helping to
design the care plan as per the specific person’s need. The principle of “Equity” is erected on
the concept of equal opportunity and equal access along with equal treatment in the
domain of health and social care. The concept of equity in health and social care is
extremely important in order to reduce the health and social care inequality especially
prevalent among the minority people. The principle of care of respect highlights that the
dignity of all individuals must be taken into consideration while procuring care. This concept
of this principle of care mainly coincides with the concept of autonomy. The promotion of
the “autonomy” as a principle of care helps to promote the concept of “respect” (Mikesell,
Bromley and Khodyakov 2013).

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Relation of the “Principle of Care” with relevant law of policy
The relevant laws, policy and legislation in the domain of health and social care is
mainly designed in relation to the principle of care. For example, The Data Protection Act
(2018), is guided by the theme that how the personal information of a service users is used
by organisation, or business or government. The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK’s
implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the Data
Protection Act, the use of the personal information must be done lawfully in a transparent
manner and that too under explicit purposes. The Data Protection Act also highlights that
the personal information of the service users handled in such a way that it ensures optimal
security, and protection against unlawful or unauthorised access of data. The stronger legal
protection is implementation in case of more sensitive information like race, ethnic
background, genetics, biometrics, health, sexual orientation and religious beliefs. All these
domains hold prime significance under health and social care and thus the confidentiality as
the principle of care draws its association with The Data Protection Act. Another principle of
care that finds its relevance with the law or legislation is the act of equity. According to the
Equality and Human Rights Commission (2018), The Equality Act of 2010 which came into
force on October 1, 2010 provides legal framework in order to protect the rights of the
individuals and advance equality under all opportunity. The Act mainly simplifies,
harmonises and strengthens the current legislation to provide unfair treatment to all the
individuals in order to establish equity in the society. Here is the relevance of The Equality
Act of 2010 with the principle of care of equity. The principle of care of autonomy is upheld
by the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) of 2005. This Act is designed to empower and protect the
people who lack the mental capacity to make their own decision in the care process. The Act
is applicable for the people who are age 16 years and above. The basic principle of this Act is

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laid by the foundation that just because the person has certain health condition like
dementia, severe learning disability, brain injury, stroke or other mental illness, he or she
cannot be deprive of the ethical principle of autonomy. MCA mainly promotes helping the
person with mental health complications to participation in the decision making process as
per their best interest and thus upholding the principle of care of autonomy.
Right and Autonomy
The ethical principle of autonomy or respect for autonomy is associated with
enabling the health or social care service users to make their own decisions about health
care interventions they are willing to receive or not willing to receive (Lindberg et al. 2014).
The ethical principle of right under the health and social care means it is the legal or ethical
right of the individual to participate in informed decision making while seeking help in
health and social care (Lindberg et al. 2014). The ethical concepts of autonomy at times are
violated in certain vulnerable group of population like the older adults. Older adults who are
above 65 years of age suffer from memory loss or other complex health difficulties like
dementia, which creates difficulty to participate in active decision-making. However, it is
their right to participate in the decision making process but the concept of autonomy is
violated as the older adults who are suffering from dementia (for example) lack basic
understanding to decide what is best for themselves. Hence, under the ethical principle of
right, the comprehensive application of autonomy is violated (Carr, Moorman and Boerner
2013). So in order to uphold the ethical right of autonomy, the government of UK has
introduced the concept of power of attorney. Under this concept, the concerned older adult
gets an opportunity to recruit one close associated to make decisions on behalf of him or
her. This concept is known as power of attorney. An organization named Action on Elder

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Abuse works for older adults in helping help access equitable service in health and social
care. The support in the decision-making process helps to improve the overall quality of life.
Figure: Several concepts of individual well-being
(Source: Mikesell, Bromley and Khodyakov 2013)
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
The Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs is a motivational theory in the domain of
psychology that comprised of five-tier model of different human needs and is mainly
illustrated as hierarchical level within a pyramid (Lester 2013).Lester (2013) is of the opinion
that lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before an individual can move up, in the
higher level. Form bottom of hierarchy to upwards, the Maslow’s hierarchy needs can be
classified as physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, self-esteem
needs, self actualization needs (Adams 2007).

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Figure: Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs
(Source: Lester 2013)
Under the psychological needs of individuals, the esteem needs mainly highlight the
importance of prestige and feeling of accomplishments (Lester 2013). According to
Taormina and Gao (2013), the psychological needs of an individual is the freedom to express
their needs and concerns. This approach is mainly-guided by the ethical principle of
autonomy or choice. Thus, observance of the principle of autonomy in the health and social
care helps to full-full the psychological needs of a person and this in turn helps full-fillment
(Taormina and Gao 2013). Eliassen (2015)` are of the opinion that accomplishment of the
principle of autonomy in health and social care among the older adults is mainly facilitated
by the power relationship in health and social care. The promotion of the power
relationships ins mainly promoted by the establishment of therapeutic relationship done via
effective communication. This helps to promote paternalisms, consumerism and active

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collaboration and thereby helping the older adults, the main vulnerable group in healthcare
to participate in effective decision-making process. Eliassen (2015) further highlighted the
ethical principle of autonomy in the older adults and the principle of “choice” and respect
towards dignity can be upheld trough educating both the recipients and the providers to
become more mindful towards the cues that evoke stereotypical thinking and promoting an
institutional culture that attempts to normalize the assertive responses towards
stereotyping.
Issue of risk management and challenging behaviour
According to Stokes (2017), challenging behaviour of the older adults is mainly
highlighted in case of dementia patients. This leads to an increase in the stress of the
caregiver along with the reduction in the quality of life of both the service users and the
service providers along with increase in the risk of unwanted hospitalization. The same
scenario is equally significant in case of treating other individuals with mental health
complications or people who are from the ethnic minority (Stokes, 2017). Eaton, Roberts
and Turner (2015) are of the opinion in order to specifically satisfy the healthcare social care
needs of individuals with challenging behaviour, development of person centred care plan in
important. However, respect of dignity, autonomy, choice and equity must be given prime
importance in person catered care. Observance of these principle helps in extracting specific
information about the person’s need and requirement and thereby further facilitating the
development of person-centred behaviour (Kitson et al. 2013). Pulvirenti, McMillan and
Lawn (2014) argued that in order to abide by the person-centred care while maintaining all
the dimensions of the principle of care, the skills of the health and the social care
professionals need to be refined. These skills include learning, consultancy and rostering

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(Skills for Health, 2018). These skills help to uphold the principal of good practice
(Thompson 2009).
Boundaries of Care
Having boundaries in care is taking the consent of the service users before the onset
of therapy and preserving his or her privacy. The main boundaries of care are guided by the
principle of confidentiality and consent. The principle of informed consent can be
alternatively explained by the concept of informed decision making or the principle of
autonomy. On the other hand the act of confidentiality helps to improve the concept of
dignity and respect along with doing justice to the data protection act. Thus the boundaries
of care are guided by the ethical principles of care (Thompson 2009a).
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that the different aspect of care
in health and social care domain is choice, autonomy, confidentiality, equity and respect.
There are different government rules and legislations in order to preach the principle of
health and social care. However, in order to uphold these principles of care, the healthcare
professionals’ needs to acquire specific skills and this will help them in the development
therapeutic relationships with the service users. One of the skills highlighted in the essay is
effective communication. At the end, it can be said that adopting all dimensions of the
principle of care is indispensible to providing optimal health and social care.

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References
Action on Elder Abuse. 2018. About Us. Access date: 4th November 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.elderabuse.org.uk/
Adams, R. (2007) Foundations of Health and Social Care. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Age UK. 2018. Power of attorney. Access date: 4th November 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/legal-issues/power-of-attorney/
Carr, D., Moorman, S.M. and Boerner, K., 2013. End-of-life planning in a family context: Does
relationship quality affect whether (and with whom) older adults plan?. Journals of
Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(4), pp.586-592.
Cuthbert, S. and Quallington, J. (2008) Values for Care Practice. Exeter: Reflect Press
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conditions. Bmj, 350, p.h181.
Eliassen, A.H., 2015. Power relations and health care communication in older adulthood:
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Equality and Human Rights Commission. 2018. What is the Equality Act?. Access date: 4th
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Government of UK. 2018. The Data Protection Act. Access date: 4th November 2018.
Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/data-protection

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patient centred care? A narrative review and synthesis of the literature from health policy,‐
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