4 Person-centred care and self-management

Working in a person-centred way and encouraging people to manage aspects of their own care is good for you and for the person or people you are caring for. A person-centred approach to care will focus on the individual’s personal needs and goals, which brings them to the centre of the support they are receiving.

This topic looks at encouraging the people you support to take some responsibility for their own care and management. This is important for their well-being and also gives you some time to enjoy the person you are supporting. Supporting the cared-for person in the way that works best for them leads to better emotional and physical well-being for both parties.

Activity 5

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Listen to this audio podcast about meeting the needs of Jackie, who has a visual impairment.

[This audio is provided for use within the course only.]

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Living with visual impairment
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Jackie talks about how she needed not only support but also empowerment from her carers. Try to put yourself in the role of Jackie’s carer, and think about how you would support someone with a visual impairment without making them feel they are losing their independence.

  • How do you think Jackie feels?
  • What could be done to improve Jackie’s quality of life?
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Comment

Jackie was worried about not having a diagnosis for her condition, and felt that the healthcare team would not notice her symptoms. Her carer would need to remain supportive and attentive, asking her to speak about how she was feeling and what support she needed.

Jackie talks about the balance between allowing a person the independence to carry out everyday tasks, and supporting them to do so. Jackie’s independence is important to her so you would need to think of ways to make her feel independent, such as helping her to find out about aids to enable her to carry out tasks on her own, but still being on hand to offer support should she need it.

Jackie may benefit from assistive technology to improve her quality of life, such as a large keyboard or talking telephone, books in large print or Braille. Assistive technology is covered in Section 4 of this course; see Topic 2, ‘Promoting independence [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’.

4.1 Providing the right kind of support