Contents

Residential care: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:57, 4 February 2006

Child care

There are 4 forms of child-care

• 1) Residential school care
• 2) Orphanage care
• 3) Child disability care organisation
• 4) Miscellaneous child care

Residential schools This is a school in which children generally stay 24 hours per day, 7 days per week (often called a boarding school). There is divided opinion about whether this type of schooling is beneficial for children.

Orphanage care This type of care is for orphans, or for children whose parents cannot or will not look after them. There is sometimes a perception that "putting a child into Care" will not benefit him or her, but instead, it will subject him or her to abuse and neglect by the 'care' staff. However, this is by no means the norm.

Child disability care organisation This is where children get taken into care because they have a disability, normally a mental or learning disability. A team of carers would look after the children, who may or may not go home to their parents. Conditions and disabilities such as Autism, Down's Syndrome, epilepsy and cerebral palsy (to name a few) may require that children receive professional care.

Miscellaneous care Care can be provided for children who have become mentally ill, with conditions such as anorexia, bulimia, schitzophrenia, or children who are practising self-harm.

Other kinds of care may be necessary where a child has committed a crime and needs to be placed in a Young Offenders' Institute.

Adult care

There are several forms of adult-care

• 1) Adult disability care
• 2) Domiciliary care (Supported living)
• 3) Geriatric care
• 4) Hospice care

Adult disability care This is where adults are in long-term care because of disability, normally mental disability. This often has serious impacts on their life-opportunities such as working and it is almost impossible to get out of this. Some people can be therapeutically trained to support them-selves with their disability with great difficulty and this can lead to domiciliary care.

Domiciliary care This is also known as supported living. This is where the staff will live or work alongside the patient so that they can live as close to a normal life as possible, but it is almost impossible for them to reach a state of absolute independence. The fact that they have a record of care can effect them in the same way as a criminal record because some circumstances require patients to show their past history in order to get curtain jobs etc.

Geriatric care This is a form of care for elderly people. This is generally until death occurs because of terminal illness such as Parkinson’s disease and Hutchinson's disease. They may end up here because people that they know are not prepared to look after them and no equivalent to foster care for old people exists. The drawback with these places is that there is a lot of abuse going on and some fairly stable care houses cave in and they have to be moved and it has been reputed to distress patients to the point of death!

Hospice care This is where people go to die. This is usually irreversible, but people can sometimes get better and get out of these places though it is not common.

Mental illness

There is another division of care for people with mental illness

• 1) Psychiatric hospital care, (secure and non-secure)
• 2) Rehabilitation unit care

Psychiatric hospital care People may be detained under the laws that state that they have to be sectioned in curtain circumstances. In the United Kingdom, at least 2 doctors can sign a paper to get this to happen. Patients have to be a risk to them-selves, property or other people to warrant being sectioned; this includes suicide attempts. Some patients may volunteer to go to a psychiatric hospital because they recognise that they are ill. Treatment can occur against the patient’s wishes if this is needed and that can often be with drugs intravenously to prevent them spitting out the medications. They are often reputed to be tied up and heavily sedated, although this may not occur. Historically people could be incarcerated here for the rest of their lives; but today this is a lot more unlikely. The patients are generally detained until doctors believe that they are stable enough to leave.

Rehabilitation unit care People whom are addicted to drugs may be voluntarily or involuntarily detained or made an out-patient here. Drugs are used to get people off of other drugs in order to prevent them being addicted and to prevent the with-drawl symptoms of these drugs occurring, for example delirium tremens in alcohol withdrawal.

Abuse

Abuse is by no means common, but media coverage of abuse in care settings can make it seem that way. All care workers will be governed by a specific Code of Conduct, or the more general care value base which states that residents and patients should be treated with respect, care, kindness and dignity at all times.

However, sadly, abuse can and does occur in some areas of 'care', and this can be very distressing, humiliating and damaging for the victim and the victim's family. Some forms of abuse are:-

• Sexual abuse
• Humiliation
• Leaving people in conditions in which bodily waste is not cleaned up
• Physical bullying from staff and/or other residents
• Emotional abuse
• Malnourishment
• Neglect
• Solitary confinement
• Misuse of illegal or prescribed drugs

External links

• NVQ Abuse guide with downloadable file
• TACT which a charity organisation to un-institutionise mentally disabled people