Understand psychological approaches to health and social

care

Understand psychological approaches to health and social care

Learning Outcome - The learner will:

Assessment Criteria Pass -

The learner can:

Merit – in addition to the pass criteria the learner can:

Distinction –In addition to the pass and merit criteria the learner can:

Understand psychological approaches to health and social care

P2Explain different psychological approaches to health practiceP3Explain different psychological approaches to social care practice

M1Explain how practitioners could apply psychological approaches to health and social care practice

D2Evaluate the usefulness of psychological approaches to health and social care practice

Care settings that could use psychological perspectives in care

• Hospitals• Counsellors• Health clinics• Nursing homes• Day centres• Resource centres for disabled people• Nurseries• Clients own homes• Residential settings• Schools• Foster care• Occupational therapy

Biological

• Genetic predisposition to illness• Effects of stress and ways of managing stress• Developmental norms

Behaviouralist

• Behaviour shaping• Ways of dealing with challenging behaviour

Social learning

• Promoting anti – discriminatory behaviour• Positive role models in health education

Cognitive

• Supporting those with learning difficulties• Cognitive behaviour therapy

Psychodynamic

• Therapeutic interventions to deal with anxiety• Therapeutic interventions to deal with anxiety,

relationships difficulties and emotional problems

Humanistic

• Recognising individual needs• Person centred approach• Empathy, understanding and a non

judgemental approach

Example one• Enid is living in a care home. She is cared for be

empathetic staff who take time to meet her needs. Sally is her main carer. She remembers to call Enid by her preferred name and encourages Enid to try new things. For example Enid had never learnt to knit so Sally taught her – it was a great accomplishment to Enid especially when Enid was given a certificate once she had knitted her first item! Enid enjoys the fact that she can get up when she wants to and can dress in her choice of clothes. She has a chance to go to church on a Sunday. If Enid feels sad Sally will listen to her and try to give emotional support.

• humanistic

Example 2• Jim and John go to Little Jumping Beans. Every day if they

remember to say please and thank you they get a sticker on the wall. At the end of the week they can have a choice of a toy to play with. John has coloured a lovely picture and his nursery worker encourages him to talk about it and she says “well done” several times. Sian is also in their class. She shouts at Jim and hits him. The nursery worker takes her to the side and tells her that she will not be allowed to go outside to play. Sian is told that her Mum will be told about her poor behaviour. Sian doesn’t really listen and swears at Jim for getting her into trouble. She is put on the “naughty chair” for 4 minutes and ignored.

• Skinner behavioural

Example 3

• Terry is going to the doctors to have an injection. He is terrified. When he was very young he remembers the nurse missing the vein and having to have “another go”. This hurt and the nurse was dismissive of Terry and his feelings. Terry has a phobia of needles. The doctor encourages Terry and talks through what he is going to do. He encourages Terry to ask questions and talks about his past experiences before he gives Terry the injection.

• pschodynamic

Example 4

• Tamsin is 2. She is a happy child and likes to play with her toys. Her parents are worried because she has not started to speak yet. The Health visitor suggests some tests – some done by the doctor and some by the speech therapist

• Gesell – biological developmental norms

Example 5• Pat and Sally are eight and six. They have a mixed

family life. They each have different fathers who are involved with them. They like to watch TV programmes and spend a lot of time playing video games that are designed for teenagers. Sally has heard her Dad using swear words. She goes to school and tells her teacher to “f… off” She doesn’t know why the teacher is angry at her. The teacher knows that she will have to make sure Sally doesn’t hear swear words at school and learns the socially acceptable way to speak to others.

• Bandura – social learning

Example 6• Jamie is 3 and just started play group. Sara is worried as she is

having problems with him at home – he never seems to sit still! Loran is the play group manager who decides to observe Jamie. She looks at how long he spends sitting down. She observes him for periods of 15 minutes every day at the same time. She writes notes about what he is doing when he is sitting down, and not sitting down and how people respond to him. She will use this as a “baseline”. Loran sees that Jamie never runs about if he is working with an adult and he seems to like the attention when he does run away – an adult always runs after him. She decide to give Jamie praise when he sits down, calmly collect him when he runs off and encourage him to work in a very small group when doing activities.

• Behaviour - Skinner

Example 7• John is 23 and single. He lives at home with his parents. He

finds socialising difficult. HE is going out with Sian. However, he thinks she will dump him as he can’t believe she will continue to like him. John gets very anxious in crowded places – buses and trains are a big problem and he has had a panic attack the last time he was on a train because he thought every body was looking at him because he was weird.

• Hakeem is John’s counsellor. He asks him questions about being on a bus or train. He asks John to do a “task” – this involves noticing how many people on the train or bus were not looking at him. Hakeem reviews this in the next session.

• Cognitive behaviour therapy

Example 8 • Javier is very clingy to his mother when he comes to school. He refuses to let

go of his mother’s hand, even though he has been rewarded when he does go into school. The teachers think he is afraid of something at school. The educational psychologist talks to Javier and asks him about his dreams. He tells her that he has one where he is in a shop, crying because he can’t find his mummy. At the next meeting the psychologist asks him to draw a picture of his family in different situations. The psychologist begins to think that Javier may be anxious about leaving his mummy in case she disappears. He talks to Javier’s mother. His mother tells him of a time that she had to go into hospital when Javier was very small. Javier’s mother remembers him being very upset. The psychologist thinks that Javier has repressed this memory and is fearful about his mother disappearing again. He begins to work on this.

Example 9

• psychodynamic

Example 9• Isobella works for Crossroads and cares for Mrs

Bittam at her home. Mrs Bittam is a widow and her daughter rarely visits. Isobella is very friendly towards Mrs Bittam. She doesn’t make any judgements about her and why Joan, the daughter, never visits. She remembers to be polite and respectful and compliments Mrs Bittam on many things. Isobella makes sure that when she is caring for Mrs Bittam, she makes the service user the centre of her focus. She chats and shows empathy as much as she can towards the older lady.

• humanistic

Applying the approached in the health and social care sectors

• You will find information on the public drive – there are several word documents which shows the application of approaches to different organisations

• You should also approach health and social care workers or care settings to find what they use. Work with another person and share your primary information. This will need careful planning so you find the right information.

• There may be information in our case studies of those with additional needs, job information and websites such as social care and NHS sites.

Scenario: You are a trainee care worker. You are taking a module in

psychological perspectives about the care you give. You are working with a study buddy. You are working on how important

psychology is to good care in health and social care.

Task – this is in 2 parts..• You are now studying how useful psychology

is in health and social care. • First make a presentation that you will give

to your study group on how the different approaches can be used in both the health AND social care sectors. You will be presenting this to the group. (P)

Task part 2

• Next, choose a NAMED setting in either health or social care. Arrange a visit or a talk to a person who works there – prepare carefully before your visit so you get all the information you need.

• Using primary and secondary evidence show how the psychological approaches are applied in the

• setting. Try to explain how the approach is used, why it is used and the result of using the approach. (M)