14) Social Care in Action

Purposes

• Protect – such as to develop the problem-solving skills
• Lessen detrimental effect – such as to relieve the discomfort due to the cancer symptoms

Types

• Medical treatment – such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy
• Counselling – such as family counselling, career counselling
• Psychotherapy

Purposes

• preventive (primary care, education)
• intervention, curative, maintenance, emergencies (first aid, medical care)
• rehabilitation (shelter workshops, drug addicts, gamblers, mental illness)

Types

• Health services: General Practices, hospital, dental services, chiropody, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, community health services, dietetic advice, etc.
• Social services: residential care, day care and home care, community services, counseling etc.

Other modes

• mutual aid groups, support groups on Internet, hotlines, clanship or hometown association etc.

Forms of service delivery

• e.g. integrated services, specialised services, centre-based services, outreach services, homebased, residential services

New trends in the service delivery

• Community based: focus at district level, long term care
• Community development – empowering a local community by professionals to address local concerns and provide support and care

Monitoring

• Establishing and monitoring operational policies and procedures

Quality assurance

• Ensuring the quality of service provision

Supervision

• Maximizing staff effectiveness

Administration

• Facilitating the operation

Finance

• Budget control

Integrated approach

• Extended role: extension of the original role
• Hybrid role: more than one role

Linear Model

• One-way communication that the sender delivers the message and the receiver receives the message
• Limitation: no chance for clarification of message / senders have to verify that what the listener heard is what they meant to say

Circular Model

• Two-way communication that the sender delivers messages and the receiver gives feedback to the sender on the message he/she receives
• Limitation:
  • This model may require a longer time of communication (vs Linear Model)
  • Noises will lead to unintended additions, distortions, or deletions of a message that block desired understanding (vs Helical Model)

Helical Model

• Communication evolves in the beginning and then develops further with modifications
• Limitation: require the longest time of communication and not applicable to the urgent cases