Clients in a Social Care Setting Should Have Rights without Responsibilities

Clients in a Social Care Setting Should Have Rights without Responsibilities

I would disagree with the above statement. Having worked for a number

of years in the field of social care (mostly supporting adults who

have a learning disability and/or mental health problem), I am of the

opinion that in most instances you can’t have rights without

responsibilities. People who have a Learning Disability often come up

against negative attitudes and perceptions regarding their disability

from people in so called “mainstream society”. The facts are that

people with Learning disabilities have the same rights and

responsibilities as every other member of society.

Article 2 of the Declaration of Human Rights 1948 states that “Everyone

is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the

Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,

gender, language, religion, political, birth or other status...” The

documents itself has 30 articles in total addressing a wide ranging

number of issues in relation to people with disabilities. The

declaration is particularly meaningful and the terminology it uses is

often reflected today in policy documents and charts for organisations

in the field of social care.

One of the client’s rights I have chosen to identify is the client

right to privacy. Factors, which could be used to promote the right,

are that the client has a key to his/her own room, the client can make

or receive private phone calls and the client receives their mail

unopened. Factors, which could inhibit this right, are staff or other

people who live in the house entering the client’s room without

knocking or, f...

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...al care setting. This

may often lead to staff having a different value basis than is

required to work in a social care setting. Organisations are now

recognising the need to work in partnership with clients; ensuring

clients are consulted in all aspects of their care. Organisations

also have various policy documents that promote and protect client’s

rights and responsibilities, and, also the use of client complaints

procedures and independent client advocates ensure that client rights

are being upheld at all times. Only when all organisations statutory,

voluntary and private begin working in a client centred manner; that

is, making the service fit the people and not the other way round, we

can say that clients are having all individual rights and the

responsibilities that go with these rights they are entitled too.