Inquiry In Health And Social Care Assignment Sample

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Introduction to Inquiry In Health And Social Care

Financial Management and Decision Making refers here metaphorically to the strategic allocation of resources in health and social care research. This assignment sample reviews three qualitative and quantitative studies on violence against mental health users, underreporting of abuse in care homes, and stigma’s impact on chronic illness care. It offers insights and Online assignment writing help in UK for Inquiry in Health and Social Care students.

Inquiry In Health And Social Care Assignment Sample

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Research paper 1: Keeping control: Exploring mental health service user perspectives on targeted violence and abuse in the context of adult safeguarding

1. Main findings

The research paper aims to explore the safety of mental health service users in England encountering violence and abusive behaviour referred to as hate crime as a result of their mental health condition. They didn’t build it themselves: it underlines the fact that many people, including women, are living in constant fear and feel insecure, and the abuse could be at the hands of mental health staff. The evidence showed that there are organizational problems in adult protection, which encompass failure in protection, no confidence in services, and lack of integrated services. It challenges better, more person-oriented safeguarding practices, enhanced recognition, and louder promotion of safeguarding voices to support vulnerable people(NIHR, 2024).

2. Approach used by author

The study was undertaken by a team of researchers with more than half of the cohort having service user or survivor research backgrounds. The participants of the study were 23 users of mental health services, and slightly over three-quarters were women; they had volunteered themselves in the study and were mostly recruited through user-led organizations, which may have restricted the types of accounts available(Veldmeijer et al., 2023). The study also utilized focus group interviews with 46 participants because the Author recruited practitioners and stakeholders. Although the study attempted to provide a marginalized group’s ‘voice’ the weaknesses of the investigation include restricted sampling and concern that the researcher’s backgrounds might have influenced the results. The emphasis on female experiences is a source of concern for generalisation of gender, race, and ability in the research findings(Jones et al., 2023).

3. Key implications

This research adopts a user-led, qualitative recovery-focused approach, making it possible to capture attitudes and experiences of mental health service users towards targeted violence and abuse. In doing so, the research ‘listens’ to service users, especially women, and reveals significant deficits in safeguarding and structural violence(Omeni et al., 2014). However, this approach also carries several weaknesses in that the results are likely to stem from the researchers’ own experience and the lack of variation in participants. The fact that the research question revolves around ‘how’ such experiences occur makes it a more mechanistic study of vulnerability and risk. Though this approach is useful in generating qualitative data, there are limitations inherent in this approach, and could be improved by a sample with higher external validity, more heterogeneous(Frenk et al., 2010).

4. How this research could be used in health and social care practice

This research could add valuable insights to safeguarding practice in health and social care organizations, suggesting that more attention should be paid to developing person-centred, trauma-informed models. These concepts can be integrated into the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) and create interventions that involve mental health service users’ views and needs, and keep them safe when offering services to them (Scott et al., 2017). It also emphasizes the need to enhance awareness among practitioners of the unique risks in the lives of these people to create accountability among the safeguarding authorities. The application of these conclusions can result in improved outcomes of the prevention strategies since the identified deficiencies are not considered by current practices, thus avoiding neglect and improving help offered to potential victim-perpetrator individuals (Veldmeijer et al., 2023).

Research 2: The sound of silence: evidence of the continuing under-reporting of abuse in care homes

1. Main Findings

The paper by Steve Moore looks into the reporting of abuse in care homes for older persons in England where he noted that it remains underreported. It underscores the fact that violence is a common phenomenon and yet is often buried deep out of sight; hence, the actual prevalence is grossly under-represented. The survey showed that 68% of the care staff had seen abuse either on residents or colleagues; however, many cases go unreported because of threats or the likelihood of being fired. The paper puts considerable emphasis on the organizational factors involved in the running of the care homes and calls for attention to the deficiencies that have ensued in the management and regulation of the care home centres, suggesting that effectively, abuse persists as a major conundrum within the broader tangent of the care home business(Moore, 2020).

2. Approach used by author

The survey-based study was conducted by Steve Moore with the help of anonymous self-completion questionnaires given to 316 newly appointed care staff working in different care homes in England. It was hoped that this approach would minimize apprehension about the consequences of reporting abuse and prejudice. The participants are the care staff in 11 new care homes, and thus the result is not generalizable to other environments (Raina et al., 2005). Aside from staff anonymity, there is room to quibble about the representativeness of the sample because recruitment excluded staff who have worked in the homes for many years, and those in well-established homes. There are no specific assumptions made about gender, race, ability, etc. but these can impact the reporting (Sheldon and Kasser, 2008).

3. Key implications

It is understandable that the use of anonymous questionnaires helps to minimise the threats of getting revenge and makes the care staff report the abuses they witnessed but noted that the level of underreporting is high. This policy focuses on the structural problems that characterise care home management and organisation, and a somewhat better picture of the abuse that happens but goes unnoticed. However, it can also give some biases, as it is based only on new staff, and the old employees who can have other opinions were not surveyed. The fact that this approach emphasizes anonymity and staff turnover in recent years means that this issue is ongoing, and care homes, along with ministers, must employ very effective systems of supervision and support to prevent the abuse of vulnerable individuals (Tinker et al., 2001).

4. How this research could be used in health and social care practice

This research can help the practice of health and social care since it enlightens the need to develop a better reporting system and a better environment for care staff. It emphasizes the need to consider staff protection and come up with open reporting procedures that would allow employees to report any case that they consider as abuse without fearing the repercussions that are likely to be taken against them. Incorporating these findings into stakeholders’ evidence-based practice, care homes can improve training, clarify the reporting procedure, and strengthen supervision to tackle abuse adequately. Also, this research will assist policymakers in coming up with better policies and better protection for such individuals as well as enhancing better ways of reporting abuse (Schiamberg et al., 2012).

Research paper 3: The Impact of Stigma in Healthcare on People Living with Chronic Illnesses

1. Main Findings

In their study, Earnshaw & Quinn examine stigma in persons with these conditions, especially in the health care facilities they attend. It identifies three types of stigmata: egophytic (negative attitudes held about oneself), nanophytic (discriminatory treatment received from other people), and pleophytic (limited expectations of the future harassment of the disease). The results of the study reveal that internalized stigma and experienced stigma feed into anticipated stigma, and this affects access to healthcare. There is evidence that shows that people who adopt the internalized stigma are less likely to seek the care they need, and they also have a poor quality of life. Anticipated stigma is also relevant to the experienced stigma affecting care utilisation and quality of life, though not directly. This discussion shows that it is possible to decrease stigma, both internalized and received by clients with mental disorders, and to enhance accessibility of treatment and the wellbeing of the workers themselves with the help of connected particular programs of intervention. The study implies that further intervention, which goes beyond general inpatient care, is required to help improve the quality of life for patients with chronic illnesses and ensure that stigma at various levels is minimised (Earnshaw and Quinn, 2011).

2. Approach used by the author

Earnshaw and Quinn undertook their study with the help of an online survey technique, recruiting participants from the University of Connecticut. They targeted only undergraduate and graduate students with chronic diseases, giving them a sample of 184 respondents who qualified for their study. Lack of scope as the sample is limited to university students, which is likely to have an impact on the general results of the study (Tabri and Elliott, 2012). Two of the authors are specialists in health psychology; the reader will find out about the consequences of stigma, which affects both the accessibility of medical care and the quality of life, concerning chronic diseases. Closely, they admit the limitations of the demographic variety of the sample, as the participants were predominantly young Women of colour. This research is relatively limited on how stigma might impact people with diverse genders, colours, and physical difficulties. This approach may then exclude understanding how and across which communities’ chronic illnesses bring about stigma (Kinsler et al., 2007).

3. Key implications

The approach used by Earnshaw and Quinn has several key implications:

Targeted Interventions: Due to the choice of the population—university students with chronic diseases—the study suggests that more focused approaches should be used in similar situations. However, this approach has drawbacks since the results cannot be generalized to other populations. These can be quite relevant to the young adults in academic environments, and may not encompass the experiences of the older individuals or those in different economic, cultural, or occupational environments (Kessler, Mickelson and Williams, 1999).

Awareness of Stigma: The study focuses on internalised, experienced, and anticipated stigma on health care utilization and quality of life. This serves to support the need to step up awareness and training of healthcare workers on how best to manage the issue of stigma.

Need for Diverse Samples: The sample was mostly young women and white, thus future work should aim at recruiting people of different ages, genders, races, and disabled to discover the effects of stigma on them. This broader perspective may help to design fewer exclusionary and more efficient approaches to the reduction of stigma (Holzemer et al., 2009).

Implications for Policy and Practice: Results of the study reveal that eradicating stereotypes in health care facilities can enhance the quality of life and care. This means that there is a need to review policies and practices in a way that encourages and supports patients in, a non-discriminatory manner while incorporating measures to reduce the identified stigma into patient care plans.

4. How this research could be used in health and social care practice

This research can be applied to health and social care practice by identifying ways of mitigating stigma and improving patient care. Using evidence-based practice, it is possible to create interventions to help the staff to raise awareness of internalised, experienced, and anticipated stigma. This training can assist in the minimisation of prejudice and enhance the relations with the patients, thus improving the health care and quality of life of the patients. Moreover, integrating stigma-reduction interventions into care plans helps to overcome psychological barriers like internalised shame and stigma-related concerns. Some practices could be the provision of conditions that foster reporting of incidents and receiving equal treatment. Therefore, through the application of these findings health and social care practices can offer care that is more culturally sensitive and acknowledges of the needs of patient,s thus adhering to the patient-centred care model which seeks to enhance the health of patients with chronic illness (D’Angelo, Reid and Pelletier, 2007).

Conclusion

This assignment sample synthesizes evidence on adult safeguarding failures, reporting barriers in care homes, and healthcare stigma. It underscores the need for user-led models and policy reforms in Inquiry In Health And Social Care to enhance safety, reporting accuracy, and patient wellbeing.

References

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