Person-centred care is a type of care delivered to individuals that is tailored to their health, wellbeing and emotional needs. It aligns with the individual’s values, desires, requirements and is entirely centred around the care the person needs.
There are many examples of person-centred care that occur in a community-based setting. Our Head of Quality Improvement, Rhiannon, shares her top examples of person-centred care and how we deliver person-centred care to each of our clients at Thornbury Community Services (TCS).
The importance of person-centred care
The importance of person-centred care is its focus on recognising individuals and how each person receiving care is different. At TCS, we have no two clients the same and we priorities on putting ourselves in our clients’ shoes and considering their thoughts, feelings and needs. We focus on creating highly bespoke care routines for each client that encompasses their needs but also their values too.
As well as its importance, person-centred care provides many benefits, including personal and professional development for nurses and support workers delivering the person-centred care. To learn more, read about the benefits of person-centred care and how we successfully deliver it to each of our clients at TCS.
How do you define person-centred care?
The different types of person-centred care are focused on the person-centred values in health and social care. The Health Foundation defines ‘person-centred care’ to have four different principles.
The four principles of person-centred care share the same values and goal, to ensure the individual receives care tailored to them and their needs. Let’s look at each principle in detail:
1. Care is personalised
2. Care is coordinated
3. Care is enabling
4. The person is treated with dignity, compassion and respect
1. Care is personalised
To achieve successful delivery of person-centred care, it must be personalised. Personalising care to the individual and their needs can enable a better experience for the client and the nurses and support workers delivering the care.
2. Care is coordinated
Coordinating care is about involving the relevant individuals and the client in their care plan. Care that is coordinated ensures there is a shared understanding of what the client requires and needs to support them in their care recovery or stabilisation.
3. Care is enabling
An enabling approach to care naturally maximises and encourages the client to have a good quality of life whilst receiving care that it personalised to them and well-coordinated by the healthcare professionals and clinical lead. Care that is enabling focuses on positive encouragement of independence and learning new tasks and hobbies.
4. The person is treated with dignity, compassion and respect
As part of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 the regulation was created to make sure people using all care services are treated with dignity and respect at all times whilst they receive compassionate care from nurses, support workers and healthcare assistants.
What are the different examples of person-centred care?
To make care person-centred to every individual, tailored processes, plans and activities should be put in place and reviewed regularly by the healthcare professionals, client and their family. Let’s look at four core examples of person-centred care.
1. Bespoke care plans
2. Shared decision making
3. Tailored and consistent communication
4. Positive Behavioural Support
1. Bespoke care plans
A care plan should be created for the individual receiving care. It should tailor to their health, wellbeing and medical needs and should consider how they can regain and/or build confidence, independence and skills. Relevant people should be involved in the creation of the care plan to ensure the client’s needs are at the centre of everything in the care plan to enable the healthcare professionals to deliver person-centred care at all times.
2. Shared decision making
Just like the care plan, there should be shared decision making with the client, their family and the healthcare professionals delivering the care. Involving the right people can lead to positive outcomes for everyone, especially the client. This can also support building stronger relationships with the client and their family.
3. Tailored and consistent communication
Communication is key to success. It should be tailored to the client and their communication needs. For some clients, their communication needs may differ to others, and they could require the use of communication tools such as Makaton, the language programme that uses signs, symbols and speech to enable successful communication.
4. Positive Behavioural Support (PBS)
Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) is an approach to understanding behaviours with the goal of improving the quality of life of an individual and those around them. PBS recognises people as individuals with equal rights and opportunities as anyone else. It uses the science of learning which is known as Applied Behaviour Analysis to understand and change behaviour and learn new skills.
How have we developed person-centred care at TCS?
At TCS, we ensure collaborative working takes place with our nurses and support workers but also our operational and clinical teams who oversee our client’s care. Together, our teams share their expertise and knowledge to create bespoke experiences for each of our clients based on each of their care needs, preferences and routines.
With our team of specialist nurses, healthcare assistants and support workers we are able to deliver outstanding CQC-rated care around the clock to adults and children in the community. Our healthcare professionals share our passion for person-centred care and consistently strive to deliver care tailored to each of our clients whilst building long-lasting and meaningful relationships with them.
Working collaboratively with our healthcare professionals, we have our clinical leads who are specialist registered nurses who oversee our clients care packages and ensure our nurses, support workers and healthcare assistants provide personalised care and support to our clients in their own homes and local communities.
Nurse and support worker jobs with Thornbury Community Services (TCS)
We’re always looking for passionate nurses and support workers to join TCS and deliver person-centered outstanding CQC-rated care to our clients in the community. If you’d like to join our team, complete the short form below. Or speak with our Resourcing Recruitment Team about our latest jobs in your area using the contact details below.
Phone: 0333 323 3762
Email the team