Values and Concepts with Specific Reference to Palliative Care - Essay Example

The earlier 'professional directed approach' is being replaced by a 'person-centered approach' which demands practitioners to tune their thinking and implement practicing to the needs, desires and rights of the users of health care services.

If this is the development that has been taking place in the health sector, which places emphasis on social care, it is imperative to consider its implications from a theoretical and practical perspective and that is the central objective here. It would critically explore the values and concepts of Inter-Agency (IAW) approaches with specific reference to palliative care. Before navigating into specificities connecting them to palliative care, one would identify some of the general concepts through a literature review.

Corresponding to the above, the second section is a literature review, the third a critical discussion of issues associated with the chosen area of study, and the fourth a conclusion with a format encapsulating what was achieved with reference to what were the requirements. A major challenge this writer poses need to be highlighted. It relates to jargon and terminologies. For instance, from a practitioner's point of view, the term patient has been used in a generic fashion, which may not gel with the way midwives or social workers use it.

To midwives, there has been an extended meaning to such terms as women- or child-catered care to include their families. In the same manner, social workers more often use the term ‘service users/carers' whereas occupational therapists treat them as their clients.’ For the purposes of this paper, the definition of Overetveit et al (1997) produced herein under is taken: "If one of the purposes of interprofessional working is the combining of different perspectives then the patients or service users are interprofessional workers par excellence [since] they.

unify and combine the different advice and perspectives integrating them into daily living and making healthy choices as they do so" (p.117).