Explain the role of the cultural staff member and consider the purpose of treatment and service delivery making links with Anti-Discriminatory Practice and Anti-Oppressive Practice and the value of working in partnership with users of services and other professionals and businesses.
In this task I am going to be looking at mental health. Specifically mental health affecting older people. I know that mental medical issues affect folks of all ages affecting each individual in a unique way.
A social workers role can be detailed in many ways and the role may differ depending on the service consumer. However on the whole social workers aim to empower people to make decisions for themselves. An essential area of the social employees role is working within a multi-disciplinary team and sign-posting service users to all services applicable to them. The fundamental key points of good sociable work practice are knowledge, skills and value's, they all go hand in hand. They are useful divisions that can certainly help understanding. To make sure good practice all 3 need to be used along, making competent interpersonal work practice.
Focusing on mental health in older people as your customer it's important a social staff member to be aware of and work within The Mental Health Act 1983. The Mental Health Function 1983 was set up to ensure approved mental health professionals examine and treat people with mental health issues and to protect the privileges of the service users. It provides safeguards for folks in hospitals as well.
When considering the annals of mental health what sticks out is that through the hundreds of years there has been an accepted way of interacting with people who have mental health issues. Nevertheless the used method in the past is now considered to be inhumane and basically unsuccessful, but also at the moment alongside the orthodox experts there have been others with a far more enlightened methodology. Most histories concentrate on the gruesome facts as opposed to the positive aspects, heading back so far as Victorian times, including the Victorian asylums. Historical notes show how there isn't much that is actually new in today's approaches, it offers all been said before but the concern with their acceptance is the fact that mainstream treatment still retains its carry.
Mental health problems are believed to be more common in old adults. The most common mental health condition among the elderly is major depression.
"Depression influences 1 in 5 the elderly living in the community and 2 in 5 surviving in care and attention homes.
-Adults in Later Life with Mental Health problems, Mental Health Foundation quoting Psychiatry in older people (3rd release) Oxford University or college Press (2002)"
(http://www. mentalhealth. org. uk/information/mental-health-overview/statistics, 2006)
However another common illness affecting older people is dementia.
""Dementia affects 5% of folks over the age of 65 and 20% of those over 80. About 700, 000 people in the UK have dementia (1. 2% of the populace) at any one time.
-National Institute for Clinical Superiority (2004)"
(http://www. mentalhealth. org. uk/information/mental-health-overview/statistics, 2006)
As a cultural worker upon meeting the client, your preliminary role is to carry out a carer's diagnosis. You need to carry out an accurate diagnosis to enable you to make the necessary suggestions and referrals. This brings about signposting to relevant services even though the client doesn't meet the service conditions. For successful signposting you need to have an accurate understanding of how relevant organisations in mental health are MIND. Your diagnosis offers you the relevant information to understand what you ought to do for your customer. You now need to get trust and create a positive relationship. Nevertheless, you need to be professional and continually be honest, you aren't the client's friend, to be their friend conflicts with personal boundaries. You need to be clear and specify your role to avoid dilemma. You will be keeping records, talking about secrets and confirming to other experts.
A successful style of assessment for this type of client is SWOT. This calls for considering the strengths and weaknesses which will be the advantages and disadvantages for our customer. Then looking at the opportunities which require considering all opportunities for change that you can offer. The ultimate part of your SWOT examination means looking at the dangers. SWOT analysis allows you to think through each issue allowing you to look at the situation and business lead to possible alternatives and plan possible threats. A significant and vital part of this particular assessment is about what's happening now. A SWOT examination provides facts to make clear your actions. It needs to be specific, and will vary significantly from person to person. It is a helpful tool in helping you to think about the pro's and con's and enable you to balance them out.
With mental health the real illness is going to have a major impact on the SWOT research. The stage of the condition is definitely an gain or a downside. A hazard with mental health will be the deterioration of the illness. With older people family can be a major strength if indeed they play an active part in the client's life. However bare in mind having less a family can be a huge disadvantage, having affects on your client.
Anti-oppressive practice is a bit of sociable work jargon, but is based on a very simple yet important idea. Interpersonal work is focused on empowering others and assisting those who feel oppressed in getting both their needs and protection under the law recognised and met. Anti-oppressive practice is up to date by beliefs and always requires into consideration both views and encounters of oppressed people.
"Practitioners are required to analyse how the socially made divisions of contest, age, gender, category, sexuality and disability, and the impact of differential usage of resources interconnect and interact to determine the life encounters of individuals and neighborhoods. " (Davies, 2009, p14)
Therefore the practitioner is able to both recognise and challenge all situations of oppression of their work.
Anti-discriminatory practice emphasises the several ways in which people have a tendency to be discriminated against, as individuals and communities, it also shows the necessity for professional practice to counter such discrimination. Discrimination may appear due to lots of different types of oppressive differentiation.
"The primary goal of anti-discriminatory practice is the advertising of equality and interpersonal justice. " (Davies, 2009, p13)
Anti-discriminatory practice is not a separate cultural work theory or method, but a value which should under-pin all practice generally. Both anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice ideas seek to aid clients to gain consciousness into how oppression impacts their lives, and also to promote different strategies for opposing discrimination and gaining mutual support. It should also prevent different firms from being discriminatory.
True partnership working can create empowerment. It really is a basic part of good practice and of values work. Feeling the necessity to 'rescue' your client is oppressive; you should be dealing with the service individual to 'rescue themselves'. Helping clients to become more impartial and less reliant on the system is a good way forward, and really should have an optimistic long-term have an effect on on your client. Effective partnership is based on a variety of factors and for that reason will vary accordingly. Many of these factors derive from values, beliefs, ideals and even practical factors such as funding and resources.
Social staff have a work of responsibility to both the customer and other family members who play a dynamic role in the client's life. You must work together with your service end user, their family and other organizations, you all have to be aware of complications and expect setbacks but keep in mind you can get through it together. When working with other agencies you need to share the duty and have open up and genuine communication. A cultural employees role is one of both health care manager and care co-ordinator.
In mental health you will need to be dealing with other organisations so that as it is just a health issue you will be working with medical professionals.
