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In Health and social care settings practitioners help clients by increasing the extent Life Quality Factors are present.
Explanation Example of provision in care setting Factors affecting quality of life
Exercise
Diet
Physical comfort
Has important long term benefits and feel good factor. Different age groups need different types of exercise to improve their quality of life. Children need it for development whereas older people need it to maintain mobility.
The amount and types eaten can affect quality of life, particularly if individuals have a condition such as diabetes/ high cholesterol. A balanced diet contributes toward good health and a person’s social and cultural wellbeing.
Providing a suitable environment which meets individual’s needs, comfortable, stimulating with adequate care.
Safety
Hygiene
Individuals may be at risk from carelessness, problems associated with old age/ disability etc. An individual’s quality of life can be improved by prevention of such risk of injury, harm, infection.
Cleanliness and use of precautions to guard against infection to prevent unnecessary disease or infection.
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Factors affecting quality of life
Pain relief
Privacy
Dignity
Approval
Psychological security
Explanation
Some individuals have pain on a regular basis / continuously due to conditions such as arthritis or cancer and if the pain is not controlled it can have a negative effect on the person’s quality of life.
Individuals should be allowed opportunities to be unobserved/ undisturbed if they wish ( e.g.
When dressing, receiving treatment, bathing or if they wish to speak confidentially, or simply want time alone.
Treating individuals with respect by not demeaning them in any way to ensure their self-esteem remains positive.
Showing affection or praise for someone’s actions. This helps individuals maintain a positive self-esteem and a feeling of achievement and value for their actions.
Individuals experience times of worry or stress – such as worrying about treatment they receive, family or financial problems – which may make them feel insecure. Reassurance and effective communication can allay fears.
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Example of provision in care setting

Autonomy Refers to an individual’s ability to have control over their lives and the opportunity to make decisions without coercion from others. Individuals in care settings can become more autonomous if they are encouraged to assert themselves and gain confidence.
Social contact Opportunities to be with other people to avoid isolation which may lead to depression. Social contact can be provided by belonging to a range of social groups depending on age and abilities.
Social support This is when individuals receive support from people they trust, usually family or friends. This provides emotional security as they can discuss problems and get help needed to solve them, such as physical support to help with a practical activity or the psychological support of having someone to talk to who understands them.
Stimulation
Occupation
(engaging in activities)
Means the presence of stimulus to keep the mind active and alert to prevent boredom and often depression. Stimulation helps individuals to find life interesting and feel motivated and challenged.
It could be voluntary or paid work or a hobby such as knitting, sports etc. Some activities can provide individuals with a sense of wellbeing and make them feel worthwhile, whilst also providing social interaction and physical fitness.
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Notes:
Equitable treatment
Confidentiality Practitioners should ensure that sensitive information about service users is not given to anyone who does not need to know. It helps maintain an atmosphere of trust.
Effective communication
This is the absence of unfair discrimination. Service users should receive fair treatment which is no better or worse than others.
Choice
Practitioners should ensure that they communicate any information to their clients in a way that is understandable by them. The manner in which they do this may need to be altered depending on the client’s age, if they have a physical or learning disability. The client should also be given the opportunity to ask questions about their condition or treatment.
If clients are given the opportunity to choose between something and make a decision for themselves will give them a sense of freedom and empowerment.
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To do: Link each scenario to the correct psychological factor below.
A wife accompanies her husband to the hospital for a meeting with his consultant to see if his testicular cancer has returned
A severely disabled boy is congratulated by his mum for putting his pyjamas on himself despite them being out of the dirty laundry basket.
A single mother of four year old twin boys breaks a leg in a car accident and is unable to work or drive. She will not get paid if she does not work and is running out of money to feed her boys.
A group of elderly women meet every day in Tesco’s café at 12 pm despite not always needing shopping.
Tracey is 16 and lives in a care home. She shares a room with 3 other people. She has no place to get dressed without being watched.
Patrick has been to University and scored the highest grade. He has just been to an interview but has not been given the job and feels the reason was not because of his qualifications or personality, but because of the colour of his skin.
Jean has been independent all her life and has recently moved into a care home. One care worker keeps calling her Jane but they ignore her when she tries to correct them.
She feels that no-one listens to her and that the care workers treat her like a child.
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To do: Write your own short dictionary definition for each of the LQFs
Key Terms You own ‘dictionary’ definition
Psychological security When someone is unsure or certain about things, lacking confidence, doubtful
Autonomy
Privacy
Having effective control over your actions
Dignity
Approval
Equitable treatment
Confidentiality
Effective communication
Choice
Social contact
Social support
Stimulation
Occupation
Exercise
Diet
Physical comfort
Safety
Hygiene
Pain relief
Suggest alternative methods of pain relief (non-drug) which could be provided for clients or patients in care settings . Place your findings within the ‘Year 12 HSC UNIT 1 discussion board’ on dashboard.
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 Sometimes..... a situation that provides one life quality factor will tend to reduce another.
 For example, if clients have plenty of choice about what they eat, this might conflict with the quality of the nutrition
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they might choose to eat a lot of sugary foods.
 These conflicting factors might have to be balanced.
To do :
Give two examples of situations in care settings when conflicting factors might occur.
2.
1.
Question:
How could such conflicts be resolved in care settings?
Different life quality factors will be important to individuals at different times in their life and according to their needs.
To do: Write a list of the factors which are most important to you at the moment, with most important first etc.
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To do: Show which of the life quality factors you think are important for each age group in the table below.
Life stage
0-1 years
Life Quality Factors of Importance
1-5 years
5-10
Adolescent
Adult
Older adult
(Occupation; Stimulation; Effective communication; Choice; Autonomy; Equitable treatment;
Social contact; Social support; Approval; Privacy; Dignity; Confidentiality; Psychological security; Exercise; Nutrition; Physical safety and hygiene; Physical comfort; Freedom from pain)
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Caring Skills and Techniques can be divided into two categories:
 Promoting the Optimal Environment for Supporting Service Users
 Reducing the Negative Feelings and Behaviours of Service Users and avoiding and defusing conflict.
The skills carers develop to promote the optimal environment for supporting service users come with training and daily practice. These skills are put in place to put service users at ease and make treating people well much easier to manage.
Write an explanation for each of the caring skills in the table below using page 23 in your textbook
Caring skill
Perception
Observation
Communication
Encouraging
Creating trust
Explanation
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Caring skill
Gaining compliance
Eye contact and facial expression
Disengagement
Physical contact
Distraction
Modelling
Working alongside users
Explanation
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Showing approval
Setting challenges
Client:
Setting:
Caring skills:
Care setting examples:
 Hospitals
 The family home
 Day centres
 Nursing and residential homes
 Education settings
 Special education settings
 Prisons
 Remand centres
Client:
Setting:
Caring skills:
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– summarise your understanding.
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For each of the following, choose a client, practitioner and care setting and identify how the client could be treated badly.
Client & setting Practitioner Scenario
Neglect
Rejection
Hostility
Punishment
Bulling
Violence
Unfair discrimination
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In groups, pick four of the health and social care services and answer the following questions.
Health and social care service
Why is communication important within that environment
Who are we likely to be communicating with if we worked in that environment
EXTENSION
Now start to thinking about what EFFECTIVE communication actually is? Jot your ideas down here ↓
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http://www.bodylanguageproject.com/
Notes on anything interesting you read in the following article:
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Lack of a common or shared language
Use of unfamiliar technical or dialect words/phrases
Differences in cultural beliefs and assumptions
Hostility between client and practitioner
Environmental issues such as noise, inappropriate rooms, lack of privacy
Practitioners lack of confidence or experience
Reluctance to communicate (such as being in an abusive or violent situation)
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“You should know that communication skills can be evaluated by assessing a practitioner’s use of the skills names earlier and assessing whether the style and content of communication is appropriate for the client and setting.”
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Ensuring continuity of care
Supporting, guiding and encouraging staff
Sharing essential information about client needs
Informing practitioners of change in a clients condition
Developing the caring skills of inexperienced staff
Avoiding or defusing conflicts between staff
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