As a frontline worker caring for people with developmental disabilities, I have noticed that great care is taken with the administration of clients’ medication in all of the agencies I have worked. These agencies strive to ensure that clients receive the proper medication and dosages on the right schedules, as failure of either of these can lead to death or some other negative health outcome for the client. There are harsh consequences for the staff responsible for such error, and, if such errors are rampant, it can lead to revocation of the agency’s license. Aside from negative consequences, it is also generally contrary to the agencies’ operational visions and values not to uphold their avowed duty and standard of care for their clients, …show more content…
However, given the complex nature of this issue, there is room for improvement. To illustrate this for the purposes of this essay, I will use an example of a section of a former employer’s medication administration policy, which prohibits frontline staff from buying medication for clients even when clients’ lives are threatened. Across all agencies that cater to people with developmental disabilities, policy and procedure manuals are treated as almost sacrosanct by management and, by extension, the frontline …show more content…
We have seen how this can lead to the deterioration of clients’ health or even potentially lead to their death. Going forward, I will also have to “identify individuals or groups who may be sympathetic to my issue and may be my potential supporters” Dukeshire & Thurlow ( 2002). To this end, I will talk to some of my colleagues in an attempt to bring them together on this issue. Clients will also be involved in the group, as will parents and guardians, but the latter two only with the approval of management, as frontline staff working with people with developmental disabilities are not at liberty to discuss such sensitive issues with parents or guardians without management’s consent. Management or supervisors may accuse frontline workers as speaking poorly of the system that employs them to a customer, who may as a result switch to another
This essay response will focus on justifying why service user involvement / participation is important in the development of services for adults. To understand this, I will first look into the ideological principles that have shifted social work practice towards user participation before looking at the different ways these concepts have played out, with a particular focus on service users with disabilities. Service user ‘involvement’ and ‘participation’ in social work practice is underpinned by the fundamental values that services should be ‘user-centred’, ‘user led’ and ‘needs led’ (Warren, 2008). I have chosen to focus on adults with disabilities because there has been much recent development and policies put into place for this group of people. However, they are still considered one of the most vulnerable groups in society (Kemshall and Littlechild, 2000. The meaning of disability is a contested concep...
For future practice in social work, I learned that it is important to empower your clients to set goals and help push them to reach those goals. Robert wanted to plays sports and kept trying until he found a sport that was the best fit for him. Snow (2013a) talked about “the ‘problem’ of disability is not within the person, but within the social attitudes, and our attitudes shape the world we live in” (p.119). I agree with Snow, if our attitudes in society don’t change about “disabilities” the person will never feel completely welcomed or “fit” for
Chapter thirteen has two subject matter that it discusses in some detail, mental illness and developmental disabilities. This review will be exploring the history, philosophy and theories of developmental disabilities. Social workers come in contact with many clients that have developmental disabilities, and the chapter gives a glimpse the history, problems, and theories related to developmental problems. Chapter thirteen explores the issues of dealing with developmental disabilities in the past and what is being done today to help social workers face the issues.
This essay will show how Goffmans theory concerning total institutions is supported and why this can cause difficulties to service users. It will also show why it important for care workers to help service users to have a voice and be heard to enable them to express their thoughts, feelings, ambitions and requests. This can by clearly illustrated by the case studies of Margret Scally a resident of Lennox Castle, an interview with Colin Sporul and Allen Williamson two nurses at Lennox Castle and final Lesley Learmonth. The essay will also show how care workers can facilitate in the process to ensure service users are confident in speaking out when they need to in the future.
I decided to focus my plunge on adults with mental and physical disabilities, because I had no prior experience with this group. Coming from an able-bodied family where no one has significant handicaps, I was generally shielded from people with disabilities. Over the years, I grew to associate dangerous stigmas with these people, even though they have no control over their circumstance. The
In the treatment of those individuals labeled as disabled, be it physically, mentally, or a combination thereof, we are faced with many challenging ethical questions. The first and foremost of these is, what is ultimately, “the right thing to do.” While we may or may not agree on the answer to this question, as well as those that follow, many advances have been made in our society to deal with disabled individuals in the most humane and ethical way possible.
Responsibility and accountability become important when medical staff gives or doses patients with medication. The chance for making a medication error presents itself at all times. Those passing medications must follow established policies and procedures developed and laid forth by t...
Thomas is a 29 year old who lives with Down Syndrome (DS). DS is a learning disability (LD) caused by the non-disjunction of chromosome 21 during cell division and is characterised by the presence of dysmorphic facial features; furthermore it affects mental and social development (Evans-Martin, 2009). When working with people with a LD, nurses must understand how to uphold the legal and ethical rights of the individual as well as ascertaining the individual's capacity to understand choices and outcomes (NMC, 2008). The task I will reflect on is completing Thomas’s admission. Thomas’s arrival time was scheduled for 9.30am, a busy time within the PLE; furthermore, he was fifth on the morning theatre list which meant his surgery would not be until 12.00pm. My journey with Thomas commenced when I was handed his case notes and asked to admit him. Unfortunately, I had not been given the opportunity to read...
Lavoie’s workshop provokes an emotional response. After viewing life through the eyes of a child with special needs, I cannot help but have a more significant understanding of what people, especially children with disabilities, must deal with every day, everywhere. During the many years that I have worked with children with various disabilities, I have encountered each of the topics discussed in Lavoie’s workshop and agree with the points he makes regarding children with disabilities. Particularly impacting the way I interact with my students are the topics concerning: anxiety, reading comprehension, and fairness.
Although society’s view of people with disabilities has evolved over time, becoming more accepting, there is still many barriers that exist for people with disabilities, especially those with mental illness. The book “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka tells a story about a traveling salesman turned vermin overnight, depicting his thoughts and state of his new life. The book is a brilliant look inside the mind of someone struggling with a mental illness. It exploits their general loss of enjoyment, resistance to seek help, and isolation from others. In particular, one group of people, struggling with mental illness, is rarely spoken about, and those people being physicians. The very people meant to keep society healthy cannot even find help
During my voluntary work, I encountered countless of people, who avoided or showed disrespect to children and adults with mental problems. I will never forget that day, when I was playing soccer with the children from the Down Syndrome, a crowd of young boys sneered at them and humiliated them loudly. Such a stigma indicated that mental health discrimination is still significant and persistent in our society, despite of its rapid development. It is an incontestable truth that all people have inherent worth and dignity, and each individual in our society is unique and valuable. With the aid of professional assistance and training, empowering people, who are vulnerable and in face of predicaments, to enhance their well-being is no longer something overwhelmingly difficult. I witnessed the improvement of the children with Down Syndrome, this made me strongly believe that each person has an inherent capacity and drive towards change, which can make life more fulfilling, mentally ill people are no exception. All these personal experience instilled in me further the desire to become a social
Advocating for vulnerable persons creates emotions and feelings that could lead to inappropriateness amongst clients. As social workers, we walk a very thin line sometimes in the aspects of helping a client. This makes it easy to stray away from policy and procedure and go with our own personal feelings. The consequences which can result from not establishing appropriate boundaries can be detrimental to my career as a social worker and to a client.
Children with disabilities are more in the public eye than years ago, although they are still treated differently. Our society treats them differently from lack of education on special needs. The society labels them and make their lives more difficult than it has to be becau...
...eglected social issues in recent history (Barlow). People with disabilities often face societal barriers and disability evokes negative perceptions and discrimination in society. As a result of the stigma associated with disability, persons with disabilities are generally excluded from education, employment, and community life which deprives them of opportunities essential to their social development, health and well-being (Stefan). It is such barriers and discrimination that actually set people apart from society, in many cases making them a burden to the community. The ideas and concepts of equality and full participation for persons with disabilities have been developed very far on paper, but not in reality (Wallace). The government can make numerous laws against discrimination, but this does not change the way that people with disabilities are judged in society.
I was also responsible for monitoring medication orders and reviewing patient profiles to ensure that the proper drugs and dosages were prescribed and that the pharmacy technician had prepared them properly. In many instances there were mistakes made in the preparation phase and sometimes even before, with incorrect dosages or drugs being prescribed and prepared, which could result in serious adverse effects for the patient. A clinical pharmacist’s role, however, is to make sure that these mistakes never reach the