Elderly Care and Caring for the Disabled

• A carer is a person who provides assistance or support for someone, with their daily activities. This can include bathing and grooming, housekeeping, help with meals and encouragement of behaviors that enhance community involvement.
• A carer must be aware of policies, licenses and the care setting, as this can influence what a carer can and cannot do with a client.
• All carers need training to help them to do their jobs well.
• In addition to training, a carer needs to follow professional standards. The carer’s behavior also affects their relationship with the client.
• The carer and the client need to respect one another, in order to have a professional working relationship.
• It is important that carers are familiar with the legal issues involved in their work with clients.
• As a carer, the primary legal responsibility is to avoid legal action against the carer and the company worked for.
• All information about a client, whether written on paper, saved on a computer, or spoken aloud is to be treated as private and confidential.
• Clients need to trust the carer, before they feel comfortable enough to share any personal information with them. This may take time to achieve.

Therapeutic communication is a process designed to involve the client in conversation that is beneficial to his or her physical or mental well-being.

Good communication between the carer and the client is important to provide services that meet the needs of the person.

Some useful techniques to promote therapeutic communication with a client include:

• Use open-ended comments to encourage conversation.
• Learn more about the person to meet the person’s needs.
• Use paraphrasing or reflective responses to clarify information.