It is important to understand why carers may take a long time to recognise their own needs and ask for help
Before accessing home care services, users and carers need to undergo an assessment of needs. This will set out what they are entitles to expect in a care plan
Home carers work to the care plan. Users are not able to direct their work beyond that
Support form others in a similar situation is often critical to carers well-being
Specialist services are often available, but not necessarily widely known about
Aids and adaptions to the home can be of incalculable assistance to people with disabilities of long term health conditions
In reality, care services are unlikely to be able to provide for all the needs of people and their carers.
Publicly provided social care services are not universal - to qualify for them people usually need to be at substantial or critical risk
The boundary between health and social care is difficult to draw, but hotly contested because health care is free to users where as social care is not
Long-term or continuing care in increasing seen as social care rather than health care, meaning that the costs fall on individuals
Local variations can mean a 'postcode lottery' for both quality and the cost of care.
Although the aspiration is for services to maximise independence for care recipients ac carers , in practice this is rarely achieved because of lack or resources.
Home care workers provide vital service in enabling people to stay in their own homes when they have care needs
Home care workers work to a care plan which determines what they do for each client
Home care workers need to manage relationships with clients so that there are clear boundaries between being friendly and being 'a friend'. At times this makes considerable emotional demands
Personal qualities are important, but not enough. Home carers need technical skills too.
People value home care that is reliable and flexible, and which is delivered with kindness and with respect for then as individuals
Providers of home fare are commissioned by public bodies usually local authorities
Recruitment, management and training of well motivated staff is core to the provision of high quality care
However well managed, home care agencies struggle to provide the care to their clients want and need in the context of cost constraints set by commissioners and managing competing demands from large numbers of clients
Although individual workers often give excellent service, there have been many criticisms of home care delivered by agencies
Direct payments, in which people who use services hold the money and choose and pay their own personal assistants, are a way of changing the power relationship between users and workers in home care
People who have direct payments report much greater satisfaction than people who use more traditional home care services. Workers as well reported greater satisfaction, and less stress.
Personal assistants are low paid and lack opportunities for training and career progression.
Direct payments may be more suitable for some groups of service users than others.

	Created by Charlie_eeyore over 11 years ago

Degree Introduction to health and social care (Block 1) Note on Block 1 Key Points, created by Charlie_eeyore on 20/05/2013.