Discussing the principles of practice vis-à-vis care provision in the community

The central philosophy of community care is that patients have a great involvement in their own care and that a large or small institution can be replaced by a quasi-institutional setting (Daily Telegraph, 2007). Community care does not simply involve the question of transferring people from large institutions into smaller care settings, but arguably poses as a challenge to conventional theory and practice. Community care pertains to the provision of the exact level of support in order for older people to attain maximum independence in their own lives. In order for this to take place, the development of broad services for a range of settings is necessary. It must be noted that the core philosophy of community care is to undertake all possible things to promote patients’ independence and autonomy (Salter and Turner, 2008). The principles of care practice for older people lie in the idea that older people and their opportunities for well-being must be valued, and their psychological growth must be promoted rather than focusing on their deterioration (Nursing Midwifery Council, 2009; Hudson and Moore, 2009).  Such underlying principles of practices in community care provision for older people is fostered further by the introduction of the NSF, which is considered one of the most strategic approaches in health care optimisation in the UK. This is because the NSF includes the recognition of cultural and social contexts in care provision and the importance of stressing these when designing health care programmes to meet the needs of older people. The framework is therefore carried out in partnership with social care and other organisations in tackling the various factors impacting health (Linsley, Kane, and Owen, 2011).

The NSF for older people establishes definite goals to address some of the vast challenges to health and long life. It describes a service model of care that aims to foster good metal health and early detection and diagnosis. Further, it tackles the need for personalised support and care in community settings by putting intermediate care facilities in utmost priority (Linsley et al., 2011). It is also worth-noting that the process of care provision for older people is associated with the multidisciplinary approach of Single Assessment Process (SAP), whose aim is the standardisation of the assessment processes for older people alongside NSF’s goal to foster independence for them, a principle that is highly pronounced in the Framework (Parker and Bradley, 2010).Demonstrating Care Practice in the Community

The NSF is geared at enabling more responsive, effective, and accessible public services that are linked to addressing the needs of older people and providing world-class health and care services to them (Welsh Assembly Government, 2011). The Framework serves as a channel for delivering the principle of universal care based on the needs of every individual, in which these needs are assessed against available services, which promote health, independence, and dignity. Moreover, the NHS and care services regard older people as ones who are capable of making their own choices about the kind of care they will receive, which is attained through community apparatus and continence services. The promotion of person-centered care embodied in the NSF is in fact a guarantee to good practice (Wallace and Davies, 2009). The standards set within the NSF demonstrate underlying principles that ensure the basis of care, which is clinical need, rather than age, and that older people must be treated as individuals where their quality of life and independence are promoted alongside their right to make choices on the specific kind of care to be received (Worsley, Mann, and Olsen et al., 2013).