CHCADV001 Assessment event 1 Scenario 1

Question

Your answer

1. Explain your understanding of the problem(s) from Mrs. Ballesteros' perspective.

Mrs. Ballesteros' inability to speak English has caused communication problem for her. She is suffering from breast cancer and has been referred to an oncologist. Owing to problems in communication, she could not clarify her doubts and was upset. Her neighbour, Mrs. Manu, comforts her and tries to confirm her appointment. However, staffs refuse to share any details with her, as Mrs. Manu was not a direct relative of Mrs. Ballesteros. Mrs. Manu informs Indigo Community Services and the doctors have breached Health Hub as she feels certain rights of informed consent. The other problem that has been identified from the scenario of Mrs. Ballesteros is lack of social support. The main problem that is faced by Mrs. Ballesteros is her communication barrier that makes her feel detached from the present society. She is at present suffering from cancer, and is incapable to comprehend the information that is provided to her by her healthcare service provider. Additional problems are financial crisis that she is facing, due to a lack of earning member in her family. Another problem is the absence of social and emotional care that she ought to receive from her family members and her children. As stated by Chibba (2015), the treatment of breast cancer requires lots of money that is also a reason for stress. However, the refusal of the staffs also made Mrs. Ballesteros feel at the terminal stage of her disease. 

2. Outline Mrs. Ballesteros' main needs.

Mrs. Ballesteros requires an interpreter to meet her needs regarding the communication. Furthermore, she also needs a professional caregiver to cater to her and her family (Osborne et al. 2016).

3. Considering the relationship between needs and rights, identify Mrs. Ballesteros’ rights that are being infringed on or not being met in the context ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mrs. Ballesteros has been denied the right of informed consent, under the Mental Health Act 2015. The act states that every human has the right to get equal treatment and service in the society. The article 16 states every person has the right to marry and form a family (Kitching et al. 2015). Mrs. Ballesteros also has the same right according to the act. The article 25 of this act discusses that every person from the population has the right to get an adequate standard of lifestyle. Mrs. Ballesteros also has the right to choose her lifestyle, which she wanted to live.

4. Briefly describe what empowerment and disempowerment mean within the context of human rights and how this relates to Mrs. Ballesteros’ situation.

Empowerment refers to the ability of Mrs. Ballesteros in the present situation. She must be empowered with communication skills and an interpreter to carry out the daily conversations around her. Disempowerment in this situation is the violation of her fundamental human rights by the doctor (Munro et al. 2014). This is because the healthcare practitioner did not clarify the scenario for her and did not take her consent before taking a decision. Empowerment also refers towards the decision-making according to the health situation (Cancer Voices, 2018). Implementation of empowerment for Mrs. Ballesteros can help her with the providence of ample choice to obtain appropriate healthcare for her ailment. Overall, she would be empowered by her freedom of choice to opt for any healthcare service therapy.

5. Identify and describe at least one way that Mrs. Ballesteros may be experiencing discrimination nd suggest techniques or solutions to address any discrimination identified.

Mrs. Ballesteros may have experienced discrimination from her healthcare service providers. The doctors discriminated against her by refusing to inform her about the prevalent health issue in a clarified manner. No interpreter is supplied to her and she has been signed up for an oncologist without her informed consent. Mrs. Ballesteros can seek out social care for her needs. The general bodies of government can cater to her requirements by employing appropriate communicator for her to accompany her to her sessions to the doctor or the oncologist (Breast Cancer Network Australia, 2018). She can take the help of an advocate to access her rights regarding the problems she faced. As discussed by Verbruggen (2017) without an advocate it is difficult to access the facilities of the government.

6. Identify what options you will provide to Mrs. Ballesteros for meeting her rights and needs.

In order to meet her legal rights of informed consent, An advocate must accompany Mrs. Ballesteros. In addition to this, interpreters can be used to establish communication between her and the healthcare service providers (Cancer Voices, 2018). Doctors must be encouraged to provide printed brochures of all the services that may be necessary for Mrs. Ballesteros. In addition to this, Mrs. Ballesteros must enumerate her demands relating to proper care, therapeutic interventions and rehabilitation groups. These interventions are critical to confront her present ailment. The present case involves the inclusion of an advocate that can aid her to overcome her communication barrier by fixing appointments to the doctor. The advocate should also accompany Mrs. Ballesteros with further proceedings relating to her treatment. Mrs. Ballesteros' needs and rights can be fulfilled through the translation services. van Hoorn (2017) opined that other factors through which her needs can be met are medical understanding, child support and advocacy. Social support and family contact is also needed in this scenario.

7. Describe what you would say to Mrs. Ballesteros about the rights and responsibilities of each of the parties involved:

a. Mrs. Ballesteros

b. You as advocate

c. The doctor

a. The rights of exists in the areas of providing an informed consent under the Mental Health Act 2015. She also can exercise her right to achieve information under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She can bring charges against her health care service provider for registering her for an oncologist without her permission or clear knowledge (Breast Cancer Network Australia, 2018). She can be made understood that she has the right to choose her own medical treatment decisions. It is unlikely that Mrs. Ballesteros wants to proceed with a legal action.

b. As an advocate, I can act as her legalised solicitor and an interpreter to meet her communication needs. In addition to this, I can exercise my right to be present during her sessions with her healthcare service providers and negotiate the terms of her treatment. If she wishes to lodge a legal complaint related to the legal aid, an appropriate legal service must be made. Alternatively, if she seeks any kind of legal advice, she needs to hire an advocate. She can't be her own solicitor.

c. The doctor has violated the rights of his stakeholder by not providing a viable amount of information regarding the treatment of his patient. In addition to this, the healthcare service provider is responsible to provide awareness to their service user. In this scenario, the doctor fails to communicate effectively with his patient, Mrs. Ballesteros to make her understand the problem. Thus, it can be also stated that Mrs. Ballesteros suffered prominent discrimination in her treatment. It is the responsibility of her doctor to help her in making her decisions (Van Laer et al. 2017). Her doctor must support her decisions and help her to facilitate the care for her.

8. Briefly explain the differences between negotiation, advocacy and mediation and how each of these relate to Mrs. Ballesteros’ case.

In case of Mrs. Ballesteros, negotiation represents her interests as well as that of her health care service provider. Mrs. Manu can act as a third party to represent Mrs. Ballesteros and defend her interests on her behalf. However, meditation is a process that requires active participation from Mrs. Ballesteros as well as her advocate. In this protocol the advocate must speak on behalf of Mrs. Ballesteros to finalise their position with respect to their own interests in the whole transaction. Mrs. Manu can act as a third party mediator or relational regulator in this case. Kotronoulas et al. (2014) state it can enable all parties to achieve clarity in their position. The social caregiver can help to transform the positions of Mrs. Ballesteros and her healthcare service provider by demanding recommendations that can work in her favour, would achieve advocacy. There is a difference between negotiation, advocacy and mediation. Negotiation is the process of resolving the conflicts between two or more parties. In negotiation, all the parties modify their demands for achieving the mutually acceptable compromise. Van Hoorn (2017) opined that advocacy means the legal support or recommendation provided to a person regarding a particular policy or cause. Mediation is the intervention in any dispute for solving that issue. It is the intervention in a particular processor argument.

9. Explain the strategies, in line with a person-centred empowerment approach, that you could use with Mrs. Ballesteros in the meeting to help her identify each of the following:

a. her interests

b. her needs

c. her rights

d. her available choices and preferred option

e. her responsibilities

a. Mrs. Ballesteros’ interests can be achieved by the provision of appropriate support group for cancer patients. Gain understanding of Mrs. Ballesteros’ current interest and considering her social and personal interest within the family and outside of it. It includes sewing, social and children gathering within her social network. All these have been limited since the death of her husband.

b. Mrs. Ballesteros’ needs can be obtained by the employment of an interpreter to enable an easy mode of communication between her and the healthcare practitioners (National Breast Cancer Foundation, 2018). In this scenario, she must be aware of the prevalent current requirements and her responsibilities related to that. However, additional suggestions pertain to the issue of proper childcare and familial duties that she has been neglecting so far.

c. An experienced solicitor should protect her rights and guide her in the otherwise haphazard scenarios of paperwork and related responsibilities. Mrs. Ballesteros should be guided to understand her right to have translation services, access to the healthcare and childcare. She must be known about the informations regarding the access of the support and counselling services. She must be provided the documentation support in her language.

d. The available choices of Mrs. Ballesteros are to shift into rehabilitation or a care centre that can manage her ailment and help her to live independently. She can also employ around the clock caregiver who can take care of her in her home. The preferred option for Mrs. Ballesteros is to employ a caregiver, where she can enjoy the benefits of the care services in the comfort of her home.

e. Mrs. Ballesteros’ responsibilities are her children and their overall welfare. They are often underfed and may be associated with antisocial activities, owing to the lack of parental guidance. An intervention can be suggested to put them under observation of an experienced governess who can help Mrs. Ballesteros to take care of her kids. Mrs. Ballesteros must identify her responsibility in guiding the advocate to achieve her desired goal. She must involve in all the proceedings and ask questions regarding the same.