TMA 02
Do person- centred care services enable service users to lead normal lives?
The aim of this essay is to establish whether or not person- centred care services enable individuals to lead a ‘normal life’ and how services may facilitate them in achieving this. There is much debate as to what constitutes normality because “it is almost impossible to define ‘normal’” (K217, Online Activity 6.1). Personal care and welfare services are available for people that require help, however such services are less likely to be used by a person who is fit, healthy, and independent and who does not require the use of services to aid their day-to-day activities. This is likely to be accepted by society as ‘normal’. This essay will also touch on the principles of normalisation and the social model of disability to illustrate the principles used in health and social care prior to the introduction of the person- centred approach. Person centred care believes in “placing the needs of the individual before the needs of the service” (K217, Book 2/Chapter 7, P.55). This has had a huge impact on the ways that individuals are able to decide on the care that they wish to receive and how this has empowered some individuals to live a more independent life marrying something similar to that of an individual that has a positive identity living what society deems to be a ‘normal’ life.
In western society health and social care services place much of their attention into trying to enable individuals to be as independent as they can. When individuals do however become dependent upon personal care and welfare services, then western societies, unlike many other cultures have a tendency to view this as abnormal. Consequently this can result in devaluing them as a person. Defining ‘normality’ is also a controversial subject in that fluctuating health conditions have proved that “the concept of independence is certainly not static”, (K217, Book 2/Chapter 6, P.26)
Lennard Davis, argues...