EC21 Contribute to social care during emergency situations

Overview

This standard covers providing social care support to an individual while receiving emergency healthcare assistance, or others affected by an emergency situation. Such social support could include helping to arrange care provision eg for family members to be supported by neighbours/friends or organising security of an individual’s property. It also covers the immediate support that the practitioner provides in relation to the emotional and psychological well-being of those affected by the emergency. This standard does not cover the arranging of subsequent social care provision for an individual being discharged following emergency assistance. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version 1

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. why it is important to state clearly your role and the services you and your organisation can provide in respect of social care
2. the sorts of social care that might be needed at an emergency situation
3. the steps you can and should take to secure appropriate social care for an individual following an emergency situation
4. the importance of obtaining informed consent and the actions needed to achieve this
5. the channels to be used to seek social care from other service providers
6. why it is important to keep individuals informed as to any arrangements for social care being made on their behalf
7. the steps that can be taken to ensure that the privacy, dignity, wishes and beliefs of individuals and others are respected in the way in which you work with them
8. how you would go about portraying a calm, reassuring and supportive manner to individuals involved in an emergency situation and why this is important to their emotional and psychological well-being
9. the sorts of activities/events and factors that may cause distress to individuals involved in an emergency situation and what steps you may be able to take to minimise their effects
10. the importance to the emotional and psychological well-being for those remaining of the removal of unnecessary personnel and/or bystanders from the area of an emergency situation
11. the signs you would monitor to evaluate an individual’s emotional and psychological status following an emergency situation
12. the clinical expressions of shock
13. how to encourage individuals to promote their own health and well being following an emergency situation
14. the sorts of issues and risks that can arise for an individual’s emotional and psychological well-being and why it is important that team members be alerted to these
15. the legislation (National and European) which relates to the work being undertaken, the context in which it takes place and the individuals with whom one works; codes of good practice which support the implementation of legislation and how to interpret and apply relevant legislation to the work being undertaken.

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. clearly explain:
1. who you are and the limits on your role in arranging social care
2. the name and nature of the organisation you represent
2. identify the nature of the social care needed by the individual
3. identify and confirm the details of contacts known to the individual who may be able to provide social care to meet their needs
4. obtain informed consent from the individual before initiating any arrangements for social care to meet their needs
5. make use of authorised channels of communication when requesting social care for individuals from other services
6. keep the individual fully informed about arrangements made on their behalf for social care.
7. respect the privacy, dignity, wishes and beliefs of individuals and others when working with them
8. interact with the individual and others in a calm, reassuring and supportive manner
9. identify and predict actual and potential causes of distress and take appropriate action where possible to minimise their effect on the individual and others
10. where relevant cause unnecessary personnel and/or bystanders to be withdrawn from the area
11. support and monitor the emotional and psychological status of the individual and others throughout and encourage them to promote their own health and well being
12. promptly alert the team providing emergency assistance to any issues or risks arising for the individual’s emotional and psychological well-being.

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard has indicative links with the following dimension and level within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004) Dimension: HWB5 Provision of care to meet health and wellbeing needs