Care in the Community

Care in the Community

United Kingdom has many legislations in place, these legislations are in place to protect and give appropriate help to all residents of the country. Four of these legislations/acts will be discussed in this writing. The acts are, Mental Health Act 2007, Direct payments Act 2007, Mental Health Capacity Act 2007 and also Independence,Well being and choice green paper. In addition to this, it will also look at Community Care Act 1990. In each of these 4 main legislations , it will underline the advantages and disadvantages and then it will indentify the moral, financial, political and social policy,which will all be relevant to the legislations. Community Care Act 1990 will indentify and explain why it has been put in to place and what is Community Care Act 1990 all about.

Community Care Act is a piece of legislation which governs health and social care in the United Kingdom. It sets out how the National Health Service should assess and provide for patients based on their needs, requirements and circumstances. This legislation gives measures for Social Services Departments to provide care and support services in the community, rather than in institutions. Covers duties for each local authority to produce a community care plan and to carry out assessments of those who may be in need. According to many researches it has shown that the Community Care Act has been put into place as a cost cutting measure and the Conservatives have been accused of failing to adequately fund the NHS.( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/442807.stm)

Since the Mental Health Act 2007 has been amended from the 1983 Mental Health Act it has shown many positive factors such as the changes in professionals roles. The role of Approved Mental Health Professional was introduced as a result of the Mental Health Act 2007 which amended the Mental Health Act 1983. This type of role is opened to anyone with a nursing background such as: registered social workers ,first level nurses whose field of practice is mental health or learning disabilities, registered occupational therapists; and Chartered psychologist (http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:ko7D0JWfI30J:www.basw.co.uk/Portals/0/Chris%2520Southworth.ppt+amhp+role&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk).

With relevant and sufficient training all these professionals listed above could become an Approved Mental Health Professional, and will be approved for the next 5 years and if they wish to continue in this role they will have additional training to atend. These professional bodies have to be approved by their local authority. Once the professional worker becomes an Approved Mental Health Professional they have the right to make decisions about people well being and give people with any health or social needs appropriate help. It would be also good to point out that the Approved Mental Health Professional has a lot of power in their role and will have to give correct and proffesional treatment and help t those who need certain care. This may be a very positive factor however what we have to look at and examine is this, ‘is it morally right to become AMPH from being an ASW’. Into some extend we can say that this is not morally correct as this does not have enough training. And also in many situations we could say that this is a cost cutting measure, as the NHS is in need of Approved Mental Health Professionals.

Another advantages and disadvantages were brought in by the Direct Payments Act 1996, this brought in a lot of positives factors to many people lives. The Direct Payments Act 1996 advantages concentrates on giving people mainly back their social life, it gives them more control of their life which is very important to everyone. Direct Payments gives patients more independent and more control of their lives , therefore they will feel more relaxed and happier and mainly be less overwhelmed by financial demands. They will have the freedom to pick their own care staff and be in control. This will give them moral empowerment. However Direct Payments Act 1996 has brought in lot of disadvantages such the care managers are reluctant to use direct payments and do not have enough knowledge about this. And also it brings in a lot of responsibilities such as paperwork and hiring new staff. Which then opens a whole new responsibility and lot of people don’t want to get involved in that as this means more work for a lot of people. However this is not the correct way to be responding as a proffesional person and all care managers and care staff should be fully knowledgeable about this legislations, as this means that many service users will be missing out on something that could make a large positive impact on their lives.

Direct Payments Act 1996 has brought in positives and negatives. But does this suit everyone. After researching the Direct Payments Act and what do direct payments users think we can say that this suit the majority of its users.

Next legislation that this piece of writing will concentrate on is Mental Health Capacity Act 2007 this act states that everyone should be treated as able to make their own decisions until it is shown that they are not. It also aims to enable people to make their own decisions for as long as they are capableof doing so.

A person’s capacity to make a decision will be established at the time that a decision needs to be made. A lack of capacity could be because of a severe learning disability, dementia, mental health problems, a brain injury, a stroke or unconsciousness due to an anesthetic or a sudden accident. (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/YourRightsInHealth/DG_10016888)

The positives of this act are that a person will be able to make their own decisions unless it is proven that they no longer can, once the cant make their own decisions, the decisions will be made for them. This is very positive as mainly this will protect vulnerable adults who can’t no longer make decisions for them self’s. This act will give them power and freedom unless proven that the person is no longer able to make decisions. The negative outcome of this act would be that people will not feel free and for some it won’t be morally right for someone to make decisions on their behalf. Into some cases some people may feel as if their dignity has gone due to the lack of power, once they can’t make decisions.( http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm) This Act will also help people make financial decisions once they can’t make that decisions themselves. From November 9 2009 direct payments will be available to people who lack capacity who meet the criteria laid out in regulations and guidance issued earlier this month. (http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm)

Once Direct Payments are available to people who lack capacity this will make things more smoother for people and will give them more freedom and more control of their lives.

Last legislation in this writing will talk about is the Independence, Weill being and Choice Green Paper. This Green Paper gives a clear picture for adult social care for the next 10 to 15 years and how this may work. It gives all people the chance to everyone to give their ideas,views and opinion and lets them have their own sa on the matter and then it will be considered. They way that this should work is that if people give their opinions and views this should make smoother and easier legislations for the future. However this is a very long process as this is first open to the public that is what is called the green paper, once the government has decided it wants to go ahead with a specific area it then becomes a white paper. The white paper then, is presented to the parliament to be voted on, once it has the majority of votes it then becomes an Act. So this will be a very long process. However if this will be done it will give people more control of their finances and their morals.

The last part of this writing will evaluate the main provisions of community legislation and their implications.

As writen about in the previous paragraphs, four legislation were discussed along with positives and negatives of each one. It can be said that all four legislations ome with advantages and disadvantages. Positive factors are the ones that mainly all service users are interested in. However the negatives are something that needs more interest put to it. For example the Direct Payments Act, and the fact that Care managers do not want to get involved with because their aren’t so knowledgeable about it. In the research that have been carried out during this writing, it can be acknowledged that mainly all legislations do concentrate on changing service users lifes for a better future. It also highlights that the legislations are in place so that service users get control of their lives back and making sure that service users have the freedom and do not loose ther dignity and morals.

References:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/442807.stm [Assessed 9th November 2009]

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:ko7D0JWfI30J:www.basw.co.uk/Portals/0/Chris%2520Southworth.ppt+amhp+role&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk [Assesed 11th November 2009]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/HealthAndSupport/YourRightsInHealth/DG_10016888 [Assessed 12th November 2009]

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm [Assessed 14th November 2009]

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/publicationsandstatistics/publications/publicationspolicyandguidance/dh_4106477 [Assessed 15th November 2009]

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/MentalCapacity/MentalCapacityAct2005/index.htm [Assessed 17th November 2009]