What Is Person-Centred Care Planning?
Person-centred care planning puts a person’s individual choices, desires and preferences at the centre of the care plan. With person-centred care, healthcare providers and clinicians work in partnership with the individual, their family members, and related medical professionals whose expertise is essential in creating a solid and quality care plan.
Creating individual, person-centred care plans designed to the person’s unique needs and preferences is a fundamental breakthrough in the world of the social and healthcare sector. This revolutionary approach developed due to the lack of functionality and the negative effects of previous care management systems.
Applying the same care approach to every individual and focusing only on the barriers and disabilities of the person resulted in creating stigma and social limitations for people with additional needs. For that purpose, social care providers decided to embrace the person-centred approach to truly improve the life of the individual and their family, making the person happier and healthier.
Person-Centred Care Values
Putting people at the heart of every decision in care planning is the core value of a person-centred and humanised approach. Respecting people’s choices and needs creates a nurturing environment for the person and their family, increasing the chances for a better and positive outcome.
Here are some of the values that underpin person-centred care:
- Respect: Each person is unique and deserves to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect
- Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of others is an essential aspect of person-centred care
- Partnership: Collaboration between the individual and healthcare professionals is vital to ensure that care is tailored to the person’s specific needs and preferences
- Humanised approach: Person-centred care values the whole person, including their physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being
- Listening, responsiveness and good communication: Effective communication is essential for building trust and creating strong bonds between the individual and healthcare professionals
- Continuous improvement and coordinated care: Person-centred care requires a commitment to ongoing learning and improvement to ensure that care is delivered in the most effective and compassionate way possible
Ultimately, person-centred planning is about putting the individual at the centre of the care process, recognising their unique needs and preferences, and their direct involvement in making decisions about their care planning.
Unique Community Services provides complex care and support for individuals and values person-centred care planning to ensure care plans are tailored to each person’s unique needs.
Person-Centred Care Planning Process
The first and most important aspect of person-centred planning is building a strong bond between the clinician and the individual they serve. A successful personalised care plan can be created if the social care provider dives deeply into the well-being of the individual to understand how the person feels, what their desires are and future life goals.
There are several key points in the process of person-centred care planning, including:
- Receiving and learning all the relevant information about the person’s mental and physical health, including medical history and family history
- Information about the most important life events for the person and their family
- Crucial information about continuity of care and for use in case of emergency
- Habits and important daily rituals for the person, including hobbies, interests, what they like or dislike, what makes them happy or challenged, and important daily routines
- Finding the best way to include the person in the decision-making
- Related risks and benefits of every option
- Duties and responsibilities of the clinician are designed to meet all of the person’s needs and provide the best possible quality of care
- The person’s expectations from the care provider and their future goals and aspirations
- Following the Mental Capacity Act, supporting people to make their own decision, or when a person lacks the capacity to express their desires and needs, ensure the least restrictive option is taken
Progressive Language
In the social and healthcare sector, progressive language refers to using appropriate words and phrases when describing specific mental and physical health challenges. It promotes diversity, respect and dignity for everyone regardless of age, gender, social background or health. Progressive language is used to prevent stereotypes or marginalising certain groups in the community.
The progressive language movement was developed to oppose the medical terms and expressions that are mainly focused on people’s disabilities, limitations or challenges.
The progressive approach and language are primarily focused on describing people’s differences rather than disabilities, fostering their skills and strengths, and what they CAN do. For example, instead of saying disabled people, we can say people with a disability.
Ultimately, we are all born different, with distinct strengths and weaknesses.
Communicating with a Person, not Patient
When looking at people as patients, we are only focused on their health challenges and limitations. The main treatment goal is fixing the “problem”.
On the other hand, treating people as persons rather than just patients allows us to learn much more about their current mental and physical state and how we can help them live more independent and fulfilled lives. This involves more inclusive care and treatment options designed to the person’s preferences.
As mental and physical health is integral to people’s general well-being, a person-centred approach and care planning promote better results and positive outcomes, resulting in a significantly improved quality of life for the people we support.
Strength-Based Approach
A strengths-based approach is a holistic and multidisciplinary process based on evidence in positive psychology practices. This approach is based on identifying and fostering people’s strengths and skills rather than weaknesses and limitations.
The person-centred and strengths-based approach is rooted in the belief that every person has unique capabilities and talents. These strengths can help individuals achieve their goals and contribute to society or the community.
Using Goals, Hobbies and Interests
Skilled and experienced clinicians create strong, trusting relationships with the people they support. When building the bonds, the clinicians can identify the person’s personal goals, hobbies and interests.
Once we discover what makes people happy and satisfied, we can create a strategy to implement different activities and daily routines to encourage people to reach their goals and become more independent at home and in the community.
Involvement in Community
Active engagement in the community is one of the key principles of person-centred care for people with complex care needs. Using people’s strengths, skills and interests, they can actively contribute to society and become involved in a number of ways, including:
- Volunteer work – Many organisations and groups welcome volunteers, including people with complex care needs. This is a great way to promote a sense of purpose and build connections with other people.
- Participation in community events and workshops – Many community events, such as gardening days, cook-offs, or similar activities, can be an excellent chance for people with complex care needs to enjoy their hobbies and participate actively in local events.
- Joining a club or a group – Many organisations, groups, and clubs offer a range of opportunities to include people with disabilities, including support groups, social clubs, sports teams and similar. Joining a club promotes a sense of belonging and a chance to make new friendships.
- Awareness activism – Many people choose to get involved in activities to raise awareness about disabilities in general. This can bring positive change in their lives and improve other people’s lives.
- Work and employment – Finding a job is an excellent opportunity to contribute to the community, provide a sense of purpose, and socialise.
What Is Included in a Person-Centred Care Plan?
Whilst personalised care planning is different from person to person, there are some fundamentals that need to be included in every tailored people-centred care plan, including:
- Personal details
- Medical history
- Mental health status
- Social support needs
- Environmental risks
- Nutrition and lifestyle requirements
- Interests, hobbies and activities
- Relationships and communication
It’s important to highlight that this list contains only the basics, and a solid personalised care plan can contain many more elements. Each element may include a subcategory, depending on the individual’s needs and preferences.
Get Person-centred Care with Unique Community Services
At Unique Community Services, we provide high-standard personalised care plans for children and adults with complex care needs.
We recognise the importance of listening to people’s unique needs and including them in every decision when creating person-centred care plans. Our support teams are committed to providing care with dignity and respect for your and your family’s choices and preferences.
Our goal is to improve the quality of your life and help you lead an active and meaningful life in the community.
Unique Community Services provides CQC-regulated people-centred care plans for people with complex care needs across the UK. For more information, contact our offices in Bristol and Manchester.
