Meeting the Needs of Service Users: A Case Study and Reflection

This report examines the case of Mrs. A, a 51-year-old woman with late-stage ovarian cancer, and the efforts of a palliative care team to meet her needs. The report discusses how Mrs. A's care needs were established, highlighting the team's approach in addressing her initial reluctance and the application of the Sweden care model. It explores the use of the Bio-Medical Model, Social Empowerment Model, and the ASPIRE framework in her care. A significant portion of the report includes a reflection on the social worker's role, using Gibbs' reflective model to analyze the experience, feelings, evaluation, and analysis of the situation, ultimately focusing on the importance of communication and support in palliative care. The report concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of social workers in supporting service users, and outlines the team's commitment to providing comprehensive care, including addressing legal and family issues, and supporting Mrs. A's desire to remain at home.

MEETING THE NEEDS OF
SERVICE USERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1..................................................................................................................................3
Discussion on how the care needs of Mrs. A were established...................................................3
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................4
QUESTION 2..................................................................................................................................7
Own skills which will be useful assessing care needs of patient or service users.......................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Meeting the needs of service users is very broad and necessary topic to be discussed. In
this dynamic and modern world, each person has full right to take proper healthcare support from
different healthcare service providers, like; healthcare hospitals, organisations, teams and groups
etc. In the current scenario, service users are basically those people who uses different healthcare
services in market place (Franco and et.al., 2017). This report discusses the topic “meeting the
needs of service users” in the context of Mrs. A’s case study. Mrs. A is basically a 51 years old
woman who is currently suffering from the late stage ovarian cancer. The report discusses
practices of palliative team as well which it has conducted while helping to Mrs. A. Report
includes reflection on the importance of the role of palliative care social worker for
implementing the care pathway for the existing service user.
MAIN BODY
QUESTION 1
Discussion on how the care needs of Mrs. A were established
Mrs. A is currently suffering from the late stage of ovarian cancer, and she is not
interested in taking the healthcare support from the palliative social care team because of having
had bad experiences with social services in her past. Basically, she built a negative perception of
team in her mind, so that whet team of social workers reach at the house of Mrs. on that time she
was not agreed to take different social care services through team. But team has putted its huge
efforts to convince her for taking proper healthcare support in current issue of heath. The team
had known that, present illness of Mrs. A can’t enable to her for living long life, but they have
conducted lots of practices to help her in current situation. Firstly, team was communicated with
her for aware her about the positive impact of healthcare services, and then it was succeeded in
convince her to use different services. However, she was demanded for nurse specialist for the
care purposes, so team was provided her that same nurse who was responsible to care of the Mrs.
A’s daughter (Han, Park and Kim, 2016). After conducing these all practices, Mrs. A’s all care
needs were successful established.

The Sweden care model completely relates with the case of Mrs. A. Basically, this is
Sweden care model was formulated in Sweden’s healthcare sector. According to this care model
or framework, each person has full right to take proper healthcare services to make its health
better (Debrah, De la Harpe and M’Rithaa, 2017). In this situation, Mrs. A also was required to
cooperate with palliative team, because this team was reached her house to provide proper
healthcare support. The main goal of this model is to motivate people for using various care
services, in which team was aware her about the advantages of taking health care services. At the
end, she was agreed to take care support, and then her needs of care were established.
Bio-Medical Model: The biomedical model focuses on various biological factors, and excludes
environmental, psychological and the social influences. According to this mode, a healthcare
professional has to enable Mrs. A for properly dealing with the impacts of internal and external
factors.
Social Empowerment Model: This SEM (Social Empowerment Model) is fully based on the
conflict theory which has assumed that society is consisting of separate groups which have
benefits of control and power in relation to the political, social, economic, psychological and
systems. In this situation, while providing care support to Mrs. A, team was required to help her
in any condition. No matter, these all factors are affecting team’s work in positive manner or
negative manner. Supporting patient by managing the impacts of these all factors was the main
duty of team.
Aspire Framework
According to Dr Richard Windle, the ASPIRE framework is very useful in developing e-
learning resources, and more specifically the reusable objects of learning in order to improve
own health aspects or as well as others. In the case of Mrs. A, team can enable to her for using e-
learning through various electronic gadgets and tools to take proper healthcare satisfaction in the
current cancer condition as well.

Reflection
This reflection is based on the importance of my role as the social worker. The Gibbs of
model of reflection has been used below for properly reflecting on the role of team.
Gibbs model of reflection
This is a very innovative and useful tool for a person to learn from its past practices and
experiences. The model was first developed by Graham Gibbs in year 1988, in which Mr.
Graham was developed this model or framework for the purpose of learning through past
practices (Coyne, Hallström and Söderbäck, 2016). This model generally includes six stages of
reflection which has been discussed below;
Description
As a social worker of palliative team, I always put huge efforts for helping people who
are suffering from any healthcare issue. In the case of Mrs. A, the social worker of team has
played an excellent role for helping her to systematically deal with ovarian cancer. I think,
currently Mrs. A is facing huge trouble due to this healthcare issue, but recently the healthcare
unit has played very appropriate role in supporting her in current condition. I understood that, as
a social workers, I always required to support people in their poor conditions of health, and this
is basically big obligation to professionals. Currently people like Mrs. A are completely depends
of different social healthcare workers of palliative team for overcome their weaknesses relating
to health. So that in the case of Mrs. A, the team’s role was really appreciable, because social
worker of team was politely communicated with her, and aware her about the positive impact of
healthcare practices. I have noticed that, a social worker of palliative team was properly
interacted with Mrs. A’s different family members as well, which was really good thing in the
case of A.
Feelings
On the basis of current scenario, I felt that as a social healthcare worker of existing
palliative team, I have to use my well-developed skills of communication, because it is necessary
to convince Mrs. for taking proper healthcare services to deal with the last stage of cancer
(Lindström, Rosvall and Lindström, 2018). Of course, this is very critical situation for her, but by

using own great skills of communication social worker made her very comfortable in personal
life. I felt that, when any person is suffering from the critical healthcare issue, like; cancer, then
it has required extra care. In this situation, palliative team was played an excellent role for
helping her in current critical situation. Social healthcare team has helped to cancer patient in
very proper manner, because in the situation of ovarian cancer. Many times, I was required to put
its huge efforts to make comfortable to her by interacting. After seeing the work of social
healthcare worker, I felt that that no people can survive without the contribution of this types of
teams, because palliative care social work team’s main objectives to support people in their poor
conditions. Of course, currently Mrs. A not wants to take support from the team, because of
having had bad experiences with social services in the past. I felt that, when any person has bad
or negative perception of team, then all workers of the team have to properly engage with that
person and try to solve its various issues which it has with team. However, existing workers of
palliative team was very helpful by nature wise, and I felt that they have tried cooperate with
different terms and condition of Mrs. A which is very positive aspect of team or social workers.
Evaluation
The role of a social healthcare worker can’t fulfil by any other person in market place,
because their contribution in market place is very excellent as well as productive (Sondhi and
Williams, 2018). For example; currently Mrs. A is suffering from the late stage ovarian cancer,
in which this condition is really critical to her. In this situation, currently she has a palliative
team of many social healthcare workers which are completely responsible to support her in
current situation, so that it can be evaluated that, my role as a social worker was very precious to
Mrs. A. Basically, in this dynamic and modern world, people don’t have time to spent in the
welfare of society, but in the current scenario, a team is here that is trying to her by providing
proper health care support. Social worker of palliative team already knows that, she will can’t
live for the long time period due to present healthcare issue, but still social worker has tried to
make comfortable her by proper communication. Present perception of Mrs. A is not positive for
the team, so that social worker has tried to aware her about the positive impact of palliative
social healthcare team. After few efforts, the team was succeeded in convince her for taking
healthcare support through team. The best part of the current scenario is that, there is team not
works for earning any profit or benefit, because there are various social workers came together

for helping people in their poor health conditions by formulating a team (Cox and Mungall,
2017). That’s why the role of a social worker in order to implementation of care pathway to Mrs.
A was really great appreciable.
Analysis
I have analysed that, the present palliative team already knows that, present cancer
healthcare issue of Mrs. A is very negative aspect to her, and now she doesn’t have long time to
live, because she will be died in the near future due to ovarian cancer. However, the team is still
here to support her in present critical situation. Currently Mrs. A has different issues relating to
family background as well, so that team has helped her by solving different family issues. For
example; she knows that she doesn’t have more time, so that it wants settle the legal
guardianship of her grandson. She wants to completely different legal formalities relating to her
children as well before dying. In this situation, team was given support to her in completing
different legal formalities as well relating to guardianship. So that my analysis says that, team’s
role was really productive, and without the contribution of team, she was not able to complete
her various legal formalities.
Conclusion
On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded no one can help service users as a
social worker, because when as a social worker, I was enabled to support people in their poor
health conditions (Zhao and et.al., 2016). But, earning money or other benefits by providing
healthcare services is not the main motive to me as a social worker of palliative team. I have
studied whole case of Mrs. A, and the study can be also concluded, existing team members or
workers has different attributes as well which was motivated them to help her for systematically
dealing with ovarian cancer. For example; their humanistic attribute was motivated them to make
comfortable her in present critical situation, their humbleness attribute was motivated them for
properly interacting with her to convince for adopting different healthcare services through team,
social worker of team has attribute of sympathy as well, because Mrs. A’s one daughter was
already died due to same cancer illness, in which social worker show their sympathy also while
providing healthcare support to A. These all factors are enough to show great role of palliative
social worker in order to help different present service user, named; Mrs. A.

Action plan
Currently Mrs. A wanted to be at her home for as long as possible, because now she not
has enough time to live to cancer, so she wants to spent her all rest time at own home with
different family members. But she not wants to die at her home in from of children, so she has
decided to go to hospice for her last days of life. I was played an excellent role in supporting
Mrs. A by fulfilling these wants of her as well. All skills, attributes and competences of mine as
a social worker of team has added great positive values in her live in the late stage ovarian
cancer. However, workers of palliative social care team still need to develop their different
attributes and skills for providing more excellent services to different services users (Gresty,
Miah and Morley, 2019). Currently there are lots of ways and resources are simply available to
the palliative team’s workers, so that they should adopt these all ways and resources for making
their various social services better. For example; they can improve their skills of communication
by using various informative books & journals, so that it can simply interact with any service
user in the future in more effective manner.
QUESTION 2
Own skills which will be useful assessing care needs of patient or service users
Currently I have of skills and abilities which would help me for properly assessing care
needs of patients and services users. For example; I have proper and well-developed skills of
communication that can support me for interacting with different service user or patients for
knowing their actual weakness or illness. This skill can support for assessing care need of service
users. I believe in that, when we work in the field of healthcare, then we should have good
interaction values, because this is the only way to a healthcare professional for knowing actual
healthcare issue of a patient or service users. On the other side, empathy is another major skill
which will be supported me in assessing care needs of service users. This skill will enable to me
for identifying different weaknesses of a patient. By using this skill, I can motivate to a person in
its critical situation. If I was the part of palliative social care team, then this empathy skill was
supported me for encouraging Mrs. A to quickly take healthcare support to deal with ovarian
cancer (Prabhune and Manoharan, 2017). Currently I have many other skills and abilities as well,

which may also support me for properly help different service users by providing them excellent
care services.
Maslow’s theory of needs
According to the Maslow’s theory of needs, there are human beings has five types of
needs, in which first need is the psychological need which is relating to food, clothes and water
etc. On the other side, the second need under theory of safety and security. It means, a human
being has always motivated to be safe and secure. In this situation, healthcare services fulfil the
second prime needs of humans, because when any person uses different care services, then it
indirectly makes safe and secure itself. This theory says, each person on the earth wants to be
healthy for conducting its different practices and operations in effective manner. So that as a
health care professional, we have to motivate patients and services user for taking care services,
because this is the most appropriate way to them for dealing with any health issue.
In the series of skills and abilities, I have very appropriate stress management skill as
well, that I can use for myself as well as patients (Kang and Moon, 2019). Basically, each human
face stress in its personal life due to many reasons, in which this skill has enabled to use for
finding different productive solutions which can reduce our stress. I understood that, a person
gets stressed when it suffers from any illness and health weakness, so that I will be used own
stress management skill for reducing the level of stress in different service users. This will really
necessarily task to me for enabling patients for recovering fast from the existing illness. Of
course, people can’t overcome some illnesses, like late stage cancer etc. so that stress
management skill can support me for motivating patients for properly dealing with their critical
illness.
Skill of emotional intelligence also can support me in assessing care needs of different
patients and service users. According to my knowledge, each and every healthcare professionals
should have well-developed emotional intelligence skill for perfectly fulfilling the care needs of
patients. I have analysed that, ability of emotional intelligent will definitely support for
maintaining good relationship with different patients. On the other side, as a healthcare
professional I will be emotionally connected with service users by using this ability in my daily
operations (El Arab and Sagbakken, 2018). Basically, ability of emotional intelligent is enough

to me for understanding patients’ fear about any illness. In order to assess the needs of service
users, I have excellent time management competence as well. We all knows the value of time in
healthcare sector. Basically, it is very precious to that person who has achieved proper healthcare
support on time. This is the main reason that, improving own time management competence is
one of major requirement to be an effective healthcare professional.
This competence will be very useful to me providing very excellent care services to
various users. Time management competence has mainly played an excellent role in that
condition, when any patient’s health is in very critical conditions. Many times, professionals
have to deal with the cases of accidents as well, so that in this type of cases needs to use their
time management skill, because when any person has suffered from accident, then it has required
to take quick and fast healthcare services to be recovered (Sutton, 2020). These all factors are
enough to show the importance of time management ability in a health care professional. By
using this skill, I will be very punctual in my daily operations, and my patients will be highly
satisfied with me. Basically, these all abilities, skills and competences will help me for making
my various practices of healthcare very good as well as productive. I understood that, when I will
work as a healthcare professional, then it will need to work in a team of various care
professionals. In this situation, recently I have developed my teamwork ability as well, because
this is very necessary to achieve different goals and objectives of a care team in decided time
period. By using team work skill, I can be enabled to provide the best healthcare services to
different patients or service users.
Currently my observation skills, record keeping skills, negotiation skills, communication
skills (verbal, written, graphic) and interpersonal skills plays an excellent role to me, and I fully
know that without using these all skills and abilities in my daily operations, I can’t provide
appropriate healthcare support to people without using these all skills. According to my research,
after more developing these all competences, I will simply be an effective health care
professional in new future. In this dynamic world, the standard of healthcare sector has
completely increased, so that service users mostly have very higher expectations from a health
care professional (Ahmed, 2020). In this situation, I have to be aware about different changes
and innovations of care sector to be a very effective healthcare professional.

CONCLUSION
On the basis of above findings, it can be concluded that palliative social care team has
played its excellent in order to support Mrs. A in her time period of ovarian cancer. She was
really facing huge trouble due to ovarian cancer, but after taking support through palliative care
team. Firstly, she was not agreed with taking services of care, but the team had convinced her by
using various skills of healthcare. On the other side, currently there are lots of competences,
abilities and skills required in a person for proving the best healthcare support to patients or
service users, in which each healthcare professional have to make an effective action plan to
develop its skills and abilities.

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