The National Service Framework for Older People: Demonstrating Care Practice in the Community

The National Service Framework for Older People: Demonstrating Care Practice in the Community

This task aims to discuss a range of learning outcomes pertaining to care practice in the community, focusing specifically on the National Service Framework (NSF) for older people. The topic is discussed in parallel with the application of the minimum care standards and current policies that impact on older people as the specific target group for the care provision, as well as with the principles of practice in community care and the roles of formal and informal carers.

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The conceptualisation of the NSF is based on the notion that improving the quality of care necessitates specific standards to measure such care and that such standards are evidence-based in order to determine their effectiveness (Nazarko, 2004).

The function of the NSF is to establish quality standards for social care. Its aim is to help older people in their long sustenance of healthy active and independent life. It specifically prevents needless hospital confinements and supports early hospital release. Its provision of specialist care is towards reducing long-term illnesses, in which healthy lifestyle is promoted to older people. The framework also ensures the importance of respect when facilitating care to older people, who are the most numerous of healthcare consumers (McDonald, 2010).

Learning Outcome 1: Applying the minimum care standards and relevant current policies

The NSF has eight care standards for older people, such as those dealing with age discrimination, individual-centered care, intermediate care, and healthy and active life promotion in older people, amongst others. Eliminating age discrimination as a care standard of the framework demonstrates how the NSF applied the minimum care standards. This is shown in its goal to provide services based on clinical needs alone and discounts any issues of age. Moreover, age will not be used by the framework’s implementation of social care services in specifying eligibility policies (McIntyre and Atwal, 2013). This focus on the removal of age discrimination in care provision is apparently to ensure that all older persons are equally provided with their needed care.

The second standard of care specified in the NSF clearly recognises the older people’s ability to make choices concerning the kind of care they receive. The framework ensures this through the adoption of the process of single assessment, and such other services ensuring this aspect for older people (McIntyre and Atwal, 2013).

The promotion of independence in care provision amongst older people is also seen in the framework’s third standard of care, which is intermediate care. It is emphasised that a new variety of intermediate care services will be accessed by this target group at home or in selected care settings to elevate their independence, alongside the help of the National Health Service (NHS). Further, the prescribed general hospital care specified by the Framework’s fourth standard of care speaks of the delivery of hospital care for these people, which is through proper specialist care by hospital personnel who possess the needed skills that will enable older people to meet their needs (McIntyre and Atwal, 2013).

The prevention and treatment of stroke amongst older people is also recognised by the NSF, and this is specified in its fifth standard of care. The NHS is the primary agency whose prevention of stroke amongst this target group is taken action. Through partnership with other relevant agencies, the NHS provides diagnostic services to those who are suspected to have undergone stroke and provides appropriate treatment through its specialist stroke services. It is important that carers participate in this stroke prevention and rehabilitation programme.

The sixth standard of care specifies the provision of the prevention of falls amongst older people, in which it purports to reduce resultant injuries. With the partnership working with councils led by the NHS, older people experiencing falls are provided effective treatment and rehabilitation. The NHS and the NSF recognise the importance of providing information to carers on fall prevention of older people; hence, as service users, they receive advise on the matter through a specialist falls service.

NSF’s seventh standard of care involves mental health of the elders. The framework ensures the provision and access to integrated services for mental health for those who have mental illnesses, which are through the NHS and councils. The eighth standard of care, on the other hand, involves health and active life promotion amongst older people, which is undertaken through synchronised programmes of action whose head is the NHS, aided by councils (McIntyre and Atwal, 2013).

Legal and political framework surrounds the care practice for older people, such as the Fair Access to Care Services, which specifies eligibility criteria for people needing care and identifies the amount of support that can be expected to help them get well and healthy. Moreover, the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 brought about major changes in the manner in which community care services must be provided. The change to funding arrangements for the care provision in the independent sector is considered one of the changes ushered by this care policy (Crawford and Walker, 2008).

Learning Outcome 2: 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 lar……………………………………..