Effective Communication

A Workbook for Social Care Workers

Suzan Collins

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781843109273
• eBook ISBN: 9781846429323
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gerontology
• Index: Social Sciences

Social care workers in residential or domiciliary settings need to be able to communicate effectively in order to carry out their work.

Supporting people with a variety of difficulties including hearing loss, impaired speech, visual impairment, dementia and physical and learning disabilities requires a range of communication skills, such as listening, sign language, writing notes, and using body language, touch and stimulation. This workbook will provide workers with the ability to enable adults with limited or no verbal communication skills to make decisions, and to express their views in their preferred method of communication.

Effective Communication includes practical guidance on using communication tools, such as computers, staff photo rota boards and pictorial menu boards, and use of photographs as visual reminders. The workbook meets the requirements of care standards and also refers to the importance of recording and reporting, and dealing with sensitive and complex issues, such as breaking the news of a family bereavement, or communicating with a person who has been abused.

Designed to meet the requirements of Health and Social Care (Adults) NVQ Level 3, Unit 31, this workbook is also a valuable source of guidance for any social care worker wanting to improve communication with the people they support.

Human Growth and Development

The development of people has been studied by many theorists, for example Maslow, Erikson, Piaget and Bowlby.

There are various models that can be used to see if an individual’s needs are being met and one that I am going to use is the model of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a theory in psychology that Maslow proposed in his 1943 article, ‘A theory of human motivation’. As you can see, it has five levels to it, with the most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid.

According to Maslow, until the two bottom levels are achieved, it is unlikely that a person can move on and develop. There will be some people who you support who may have achieved the majority or all of these stages and there may be some who have not. Therefore, you need to consider with each individual where they are at and how you can provide the individual with the right support to achieve the other levels and reach self-actualization (assuming these have not been reached yet).

Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which levels are being met in your place of work?

HOW TO REACH THE HIGHER LEVELS

Personal development and growth: the service user needs opportunities to communicate and maintain skills and/or learn new skills and achieve. This can be anything from learning to prepare a snack, vacuum a carpet, swim, read or write, learn how to use the website, how to catch a bus, getting a job, chairing his own review, etc.

Status, recognition: we all need a role or two and when we carry out these roles people thank us and appreciate us. We all need to be able to communicate to decide what roles we would like.

Think of an individual (call him ‘Mr A’) who lives in the service. What is your role in your house (where you live) and the individual’s role where he lives?

Mr A’s roles	My roles
..............................	..............................
..............................	..............................
..............................	..............................
..............................	..............................

If Mr A has not got any roles or responsibilities, you may wish to discus with him about bringing one or two in to start with if he is able to. They can be large or small, e.g. clearing the table after a meal or taking his crockery to the kitchen, or taking it in turn to chair the house meeting etc.

Social – belonging to a group: support is needed to enable the service user to be in a group (if he wants to). The individual needs to be able to communicate to decide what he would like to do. Examples of being in a group can be anything from doing voluntary work clearing woodland once a week, playing in a pool team in the pub, belonging to a book circle, being part of a club, going to bingo with a group of friends, attend...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Other Books in the Series
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Acknowledgement
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Why We Need to be Able to Communicate
• Communication within your Team, Families and Outside Agencies
• Capacity to Make a Decision
• Communicating with an Individual
• Communication Profile or Communication Passport
• Problems in Communication
• The Different Ways We Communicate
• Providing Opportunities to Communicate
• Communication Cycle
• Listening Skills
• Factors Affecting Communication
• Visual Reminders
• Stimulation
• Feelings, Emotions and Relationships
• Objects of Reference
• Using Photographs
• Alternative Ways of Communicating
• Making Choices
• Personal Space
• Body Language
• Supporting Various Kinds of Service Users
• Sensitive and Complex Issues
• Human Growth and Development
• Recording and Reporting
• Confidentiality
• Data Protection Act 1998
• Access of Health Records Act 1990
• Self-Assessment Tool
• Certificate
• Knowledge Specification Chart
• Legislation and Useful Websites
• References