Person-Centred Care Awareness

Person-centred care is important because it helps minimise the risk of unfair, harmful or negative treatment and neglect to the patient. It makes the patients feel more comfortable and confident in your service, meets their emotional, social and practical needs, and improves their independence.

The 4 principles of person-centred care are:

1. Treat people with respect, compassion and dignity. Always keep in mind that your patients have their own thoughts and feelings so you should always respect their wishes and look after their needs.
2. Provide coordinated care, support, and treatment. To ensure the patient gets the best care support and treatment, it’s best to record the patient’s needs in their care plan and share/coordinate with other caregivers and services if necessary.
3. Offer personalised support, care and treatment. It’s important to remember that not every patient requires the same care. To ensure you’re meeting their own needs and wishes, you should offer a personalised service.
4. Enable service users to live an independent and fulfilling life. Providing person-centred care means the patients should be involved in decisions and take action to support them to gain an understanding of how they can look after themselves.