Meeting the Needs of Different Client Groups - Assignment Example

Introduction A private fostering arrangement is one that involves a child; under the age of 16 years or 18 years old if he or she is disabled, who does not receive accommodation from the local authority but gets one from an individual without parental responsibility for him or her, and is not related to the child (Laird 2014, p 62). The expectation is that the arrangement might go on for a period of 28 days or more. In the case involving Rachel, Tracey’s parents accommodate her under the private fostering arrangement, which they had to formalize by signing a number of forms provided for by the local children’s service office. This paper looks into the provisions of private fostering, and in doing so, it outlines some of the rules and responsibilities that guide the client and the caregiver as well. Conversely, the paper provides an evaluation of two models of care, the Orem’s Self Care model and the Roper, Logan and Tierney’s activities of living, thereby revealing how they relate to the case in consideration. Rules and Responsibilities of both the Carer and the Client Majorities of friends or family carers act in an informal manner by agreeing with the people holding parental responsibility for a child, identified as the client in this case. For this reason, the initial arrangement between Rachel’s parents and Tracey’s parents to accommodate Rachel in their house was informal in nature. However, given that Tracey’s parents agreed to accommodate Rachel for a number of months, which is more than the informal care threshold set by the law, the parents has to visit the children’s service office to formalize the private fostering arrangement. As required by the law, the parents had to contact the children’s services office to determine that Tracey’s parents had the ability to look after Rachel in a proper manner, which includes ensuring that they do not expose her to any risk, given that she will be living away from her legal guardians (Laird 2014, p 87). The main responsibility of the carers in this case is to safeguard and promote the welfare of the clients under their care (Laird 2014, p 102). For this reason, the first consideration would be to inform the local council of such an arrangement, even though quite a number of the carers do not do it. The carer should meet this requirement to allow social services to check on whether the client is receiving proper care. It is vital for social services to be made aware of such an arrangement in order to preserve and uphold the welfare to a potentially vulnerable child. On the other hand, the carers are required to inform the local authorities when the child under their care leaves. They should be able to state the reasons for the child leaving their care, and provide the name and address of the individual into whose care the child might have moved. This also applies to children who might have moved back to living with the people with parental responsibility. Despite the notifications that the carer is required to provide to the local authorities, the other requirement that a private foster carer should provide to the client is to carry out any duties agreed with the child’s parents (Laird 2014, p 104). Conversely, the carer should allow a representative from the local authority to visit the client and the premises. Even though people have their own beliefs, rights and lifestyles, an individual does not have the right to damage other people’s quality of life (Moonie, 2000, p 4). For this reason, the client has a responsibility to maintain respect to the people accommodating for her. The client is also responsible for taking control her own care, despite the fact that she cannot do all things on her own. For this reason, she can provide the social worker with an opinion on the level of care she is receiving, which is necessary for ensuring that she is comfortable under the care of her caregivers (Laird 2014, p 102). Models of Care Dorothea Orem’s self-care model is one of the models to consider in this case, and it is based on the idea that an individual has the duty to maintain his or her state of well-being through performing self-care activities. Relating this model to health, Orem views individuals as responsible for their personal self-care (Meleis 2011, p 215). In this case, the self-care agency is the complex ability that an individual acquires to promote their well-being, to regulate his or her life processes, to promote and maintain the integrity of the human structure, human development and functioning, and the ability to meet his or her continuing requirement for care in the regulation of life’s processes. Under this model, an individual is responsible for taking care of other people that might be dependent on them, such as the elderly and children. On the other hand, a client has the right to make a choice on matters relating to his or her health (Meleis 2011, p 219). This means that under the care of her carers, Rachel has the right to make choices on matters that relate to her health even though she is still a dependant. The Roper, Logan and Tierney’s activities of living is based on a number of activities that include the maintenance of a safe environment, drinking and eating, washing and dressing, breathing, communicating sexual expressions, sleeping, mobilization, thermoregulation, playing, working and death. Each of the activities listed can be seen as a conceptualization of events that lie in a continuum from being dependent on others to gaining independence (Roper et al 2001, p 35). In this case, a client might feel that their lives depend on others, who might be in a good position to deliver on their needs. Since the model is applicable in nursing practice, the role of a nurse in this case would be to assist patients to move from a state of independence towards being independent when performing the activities of daily living. However, in relation to the case in question, it is the responsibility of the carers of the client to manipulate the socio-cultural or psychological variables for enabling the client to move towards independence. The difference between the two models is that in Orem’s model, the client has the opportunity to make choices on matters to do with his or her health independently, which is not possible initially in the Roper, Logan and Tierney’s activities of living model. Orem’s model comprises of two self-care phases, the first being the recognition of a problem, then making decisions that would assist in dealing with the problem (Meleis 2011, p 217). The second phase in the model involves taking appropriate actions in performing the self-care activities necessary for maintaining the client’s well-being. The self-care demands might emanate from the client or other people. Conversely, they might originate from other factors that are inclusive of the age of the client, his or her knowledge level, state of health, goals and values, resources available and the usual response patterns to external as well as internal stimuli. In reference to Rachel’s case, it is possible to determine that she was able to recognize the problem, which was presumably a result of her presence in her parents’ house. The healthcare requisite in this case was an emphasis on her human development process, with the focus being the acquisition of an appropriate living condition. By fleeing her parent’s house to live with Tracey’s family, her focus was to seek the most appropriate living conditions that could support her life and promote her developmental growth (Orem, 1985. p. 90). For this reason, she was preventing a situation that could damage or have a negative effect on her normal growth and development. On the other hand, a self-care requisite according to Orem’s model is the promotion of the functioning and development of an individual within given social groups as well as the desire for normalcy. These are some of the requisites that Rachel was keen on fulfilling. The implementation of care plan considerations in the Roper, Logan and Tierney’s activities of living model requires patient cooperation (Roper et al 2001, p 36). This follows the necessity of assisting a patient to overcome the state of depression that she might be experiencing. It is possible to determine that Rachel might not be in a good position to participate fully in some of her daily living activities since she is going through a depressing relationship with her parents, who blame her for the rows that have been taking place in her home. The nursing process in this model is inclusive of stages that she should complete in order to overcome the problem that she is undergoing (Roper et al 2001, p 36). For this reason, it will be vital to identify some of the factors that require attention in order to prevent the reoccurrence of her depressive state, the initial one being her relocation from her parent’s house. Since the expectation is that Rachel will eventually return to living with her parents, she might not cooperate with the care plan that would enable her to be ready for such a possibility. Despite this possibility, the holistic approach of the Roper, Logan and Tierney’s activities of living model will lead to the eventual client’s cooperation with the care plan. Conclusion The private fostering arrangement in consideration in Rachel’s case is a consideration of a care plan that is necessary for mending the sour relationship existing between her and her parents. With the main responsibility of the carers in a private fostering arrangement being the promotion and maintenance of the client’s welfare, it is necessary to apply the most appropriate care plan that can be informed by the different models of care available. When dealing with an individual undergoing a given problem, it is necessary to use an appropriate model that is carefully planned in order to overcome the difficulties that an individual might be going through. In this case, it would be vital to utilize the Roper, Logan and Tierney’s activities of living model, or Orem’s self-care model, whose applications depend on the dependency state of the individual, among other factors. Bibliography Laird, S. E. 2014. Practical social work law: Analyzing court cases and inquiries. Routledge, London. Meleis, A. I. 2011. Theoretical nursing: development and progress. Philadelphia, Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Moonie, N. 2000. Advanced health and social care. Oxford, Heinemann Educational. Orem, D. 1985. Nursing: Concepts of practice (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill, St. Louis. Roper, N., Logan, W. W., & Tierney, A. J. 2001. The Roper-Logan-Tierney model of nursing: based on activities of living. Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone. Read More