What is person centred care planning and why is it important?

Person-centred care is crucial to providing first class care. By putting the individual at the heart of your service, your care plan and care delivery then reflects that specific person, resulting in a happier and healthier client. So, instead of using a blanket care plan for everyone, the way you look after each person should be unique.

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What is person-centred care planning and why is it important?

Person-centred care is crucial to providing first-class care. By putting the individual at the heart of your service, your care plan and care delivery then reflect that specific person, resulting in a happier and healthier client. So, instead of using a blanket care plan for everyone, the way you look after each person should be unique. It’s only possible to achieve this if there’s good communication and partnership between those providing the care and those receiving the care.

This style of caring gives a voice to those in need of care by involving them in the planning, management and decision-making process. Their contribution supports the creation of care plans that offer solutions specifically catering to their needs. 

Writing a person-centred care plan can be time-consuming to begin with. However, it should be undertaken not as a chore, but as a way to bond and build a relationship with the individual. If done correctly it should return strong results with fewer issues to overcome in the future due to the efficiency of the service you are providing.

CareDocs Features Care Plans How are Care Plans Used

Principles of person-centred care

Each person is likely to have individual views and beliefs around their personal health and wellbeing. This means a one-size-fits-all approach to healthcare doesn’t reflect closely enough how people think and behave. A generic approach to care can often make patients feel ignored and ultimately disappointed with the care they are receiving, which can have adverse effects on mental and physical health.

Clients may also have strong views on certain medicines, or have personal priorities that need to be factored into decisions around their health. Person-centred care is a way to ensure that concerns are heard and respected.

Benefits of person-centred care

Person-centred care provides a multitude of benefits for both health providers and the individual, including:

  • Focusing on what matters – It caters to the individuality of people to deliver a meaningful service that listens to want each resident wants instead of giving them what they don’t. This means solutions aren’t provided that don’t align with residents’ needs, beliefs and desires.

  • It empowers – Patients are more likely to feel empowered and listened to with person-centred care. This helps get them motivated and passionate about their course of treatment and care.

  • Makes healthcare more transparent – Creating a system that is very open and transparent means clients are more likely to feel comfortable getting involved and even raising any questions, concerns and feedback to the care providers.

  • Promoting collaboration – Person-centred care makes it easier to involve other family and friends in the management and planning of care. This is particularly useful when looking at elderly care where family members may also support in caring for a patient. This helps ensure their views and situations are listened to and incorporated into the care plan.

  • It’s easier to change / modify over time – As more people are involved in the planning of the care, it’s less reliant on certain carers so this makes it easier for other people to read the plan and talk this through with the individual, making any changes if necessary.

  • Promoting resident needs – It puts the needs of residents first and prevents the healthcare provider from offering unwanted solutions. This ensures each client gets the care they desire.

  • Avoiding wasting resources – Healthcare which isn’t formulated for the individual can often result in an excessive waste of time and money through care that isn’t suitable. In contrast, person-centred care helps remove the need for residents to come back with the same issues that might have been ignored in previous plans.

  • Allowing for predictive care solutions – If recorded with care planning software, it presents opportunities for predictive healthcare through technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. In the coming years, this could help create recommendations based on previously successful care plans and help provide patients with more options.

  • Driving innovation in care planning – As carers need to take individual circumstances into consideration, it encourages carers to think outside the box and adopt more creative and innovative solutions. 
Person Centred Care Planning - CareDocs

Person-centred care planning

Communication lies at the heart of person-centred care. Having an open and transparent relationship between clients and care professionals means making decisions together to allow for improved patient satisfaction. Person-centred care planning allows carers to build meaningful relationships with their patients and delve into their personal life stories to help understand what they’ve been through and where they want to go.

This type of care planning needs to start with a conversation about the individual and what their desires are, what their fears or challenges are, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their values and beliefs. From this, it becomes clearer what type of care would be most suitable.

With care planning software, everything can be logged and recorded for ease of access and so the individual doesn’t have to repeat themselves. This ability to share and involve multiple people in the planning, management and delivery of care, means care homes and healthcare providers are able to offer a more holistic and personal service.

A great example of where person-centred care planning is effective is with individuals with dementia. It’s easy to focus on dementia as an illness, as opposed to focusing on the individual with dementia. Due to their illness, it makes it difficult to communicate, so simply taking full control of their care is the easier option. But this fails to create a care plan that meets their specific needs as an individual. 

By taking the time and effort to develop a more personal, and one-to-one approach with the patient, carers can create dementia care plans that work much better. Many studies have shown the positive impact and almost limiting effects of dementia when the care is personal, supportive and forged through meaningful relationships.

CareDocs & our approach to care management

Here at CareDocs, we’re passionate about helping to deliver healthcare that truly makes a difference. Our care planning and recording software is designed to make it as easy as possible for health professionals, care workers and residents to analyse, manage and understand health records, without removing any of the important details.

Our solutions are perfect for those who believe in person-centred care and help support collaborative care planning, and for those wanting to achieve better inspection results.

For more information about how CareDocs can make a difference for your care home, get in touch today to learn more. Our friendly staff can help show you how easy it is to deliver person-centred care with our innovative software. Call us on 0330 056 3333 or email sales@caredocs.co.uk.

Want more information on this subject? Check out this free ebook:

Introduction to care planning

Originally published on August 7, 2020
Article updated on June 5, 2023

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