What is a care plan in health and social care and why are care plans important?

Care plans are essential in order to provide outstanding quality care

A care plan in health and social care is crucial in ensuring that the appropriate and right level of care is provided and that the resident's wishes and preferences are respected.

Each individual is different, and everyone has different needs and wants, preferences, wishes, and abilities. Therefore, understanding the needs of each resident is essential for a truly person-centred approach.

Care planning allows staff to easily provide person-centred care tailored to everyone's needs.

What does creating a care plan involve?

Creating a care plan is often a collaborative process with the person being cared for, relatives and carers.

In order to create a care plan, a full review of the person being cared for is undertaken so that areas of need can be considered. It is important to set goals and plan actions around these goals with clear direction.

Here are a few examples of the types of support that might be included in a care plan:

What's important to you.
What you can do yourself
An assessment of your care needs
Your wishes and preferences
Adaptations or equipment to make your home more comfortable and safer
A personal alarm that can be used in case of an emergency
Records of care that have been provided
Desired outcomes

Why are care plans important in health and social care?

Care plans are essential for providing outstanding quality care; they help to outline the level of care needed for each person being cared for and help to direct care workers on the roles they need to undertake to provide good quality care..

It is important to have a care plan for each individual due to the varying levels of support needed, requirements, and preferences. Here at Person Centred Software, we ensure that our digital care planning system allows care providers to set up each resident’s regular care requirements, which also helps to plan for staffing for each planned care. (eg. Forecast how many staff members will be required per shift). Person Centred Software also ensures that carers can provide person-centred interactions through various features such as ‘who I am’ even when clinical interventions are needed.

For example, a person being cared for has low blood glucose levels, and it is noted that they love red jelly babies; knowing this means that you can easily and comfortably boost their blood glucose levels through a person-centred clinical intervention.

The care plan aims to provide a better overall outcome for the resident; one major advantage of digitally created care plans is that they take significantly less time to create, meaning care teams can spend more time with residents.

You can read more about the benefits of digital care planning by clicking here.

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What is a care plan in health and social
care and why are care plans important?

Care plans are essential in order to provide outstanding quality care