What Does Empowering an Individual Mean in Social Care?

If you work in the social care field, it’s important to learn the answer to the vital question: what does empowering an individual mean? Care extends far beyond meeting basic needs into strategies for helping to encourage personal empowerment and dignity.

Learn more about how you and your team can take one of Virtual College’s social care training courses or keep reading to understand what empowerment means and how to promote it.

What Does Empowering an Individual Mean?

Empowerment in health and social care means giving individuals greater control over the decisions and actions that affect their lives and wellbeing. This can span decisions about their daily routine, care delivery, lifestyle and long-term goals. 

The process involves individuals making informed choices about their care and lifestyle wherever possible. In turn, this gives care-users increased confidence to express their preferences and take a greater stake in their own lives.

Empowerment is a crucial aspect of care. The Care Act 2014 recognises this, with empowerment established as the first fundamental principle of care delivery in the UK. This means care providers must actively support individuals to be genuinely involved in all aspects of planning and receiving their care.

Why is Empowerment in Health and Social Care So Important?

The ultimate aim of empowerment is to engage individuals in their care journey, rather than simply being a passive recipient of services. Feedback and experience tell us that this can have a huge impact on quality of life and lead to the following benefits:

• Improved confidence and self-esteem
• More meaningful engagement with care services
• Better mental health
• Greater independence in daily life
• Stronger relationships with care providers

Most importantly, empowerment helps maintain independence and dignity in health and social care, which care recipients consistently cite as essential to their wellbeing. 

When individuals are properly empowered, care stops being a one-way service-to-provider relationship and becomes an effective partnership with better outcomes for everyone involved.

Empowerment in Different Care Settings

Each care setting presents unique opportunities for empowerment. In residential care homes, this might mean giving residents a genuine voice in how their home operates, from meal planning to social activities. 

For those receiving home care, empowerment focuses on maintaining independence in familiar surroundings whilst having control over how and when care is delivered.

Another important care setting to consider is healthcare institutions. Here, empowerment plays a vital role in recovery outcomes. Patients who are involved in their treatment decisions typically have better wellbeing throughout their recovery journey and comply better with their care instructions and treatment plans.

However, regardless of the setting, empowerment in care should always extend to:

• Choice over daily routines and personal care preferences
• Input into care planning and delivery
• Control over mealtimes and food choices
• Having the freedom to maintain relationships and social connections

Creating an Environment of Empowerment

Implementing successful empowerment in health and social care settings requires an environment where people feel confident expressing their needs and preferences. This means providing information in clear, accessible language and ensuring regular opportunities for feedback and discussion.

Some successful empowerment strategies in care settings include:

• Creating personalised care plans that reflect individual choices
• Maintaining regular, open communication about care preferences
• Using technology to enhance access to information and communication
• Establishing clear feedback channels for service users
• Ensuring staff are properly trained in empowerment techniques

These strategies can help to create an environment where individuals feel confident expressing their needs and taking an active role in their care journey.

5 Examples of Ways to Support Empowerment

So what does empowering an individual mean in practical terms? Understanding what empowerment means is important, but knowing how to put it into practice is the crucial next step. 

It can take some practice to adapt your communication style to actively and continually empower care users by offering choice and encouragement. 

Here are some practical examples of how you can empower individuals for truly person-centred care.

1. Present Choice in Daily Routines

Even small decisions can help someone feel more in control of their daily life. That’s why it’s vital to build choice into care-users' daily lives. Here are some ways to do just that:

• Why not lay out outfit choices rather than just selecting an outfit for a care-user
• Check to make sure personal care items are within easy reach if the individual is able to use them independently
• Offer picture cards of meal options (and other daily choices) for those who struggle with verbal communication
  
  

2. Take the Time to Learn Individual Preferences

Rather than making assumptions or arbitrary decisions, remember that the person you care for likely has personal preferences about their care. Take the time to learn these preferences. 

Here are some prompts for questions you could ask:

• “What time do you prefer to wake up in the morning?”
• "Would you rather have a bath or a shower?"
• “What do you like to do to relax?”
  
  

3. Make Practical Changes to Promote Independence

Simple adjustments in environment can help individuals to maintain their independence, such as:

• Adapting cutlery or cups to make eating self-feeding easier for those who find it challenging
• Ensuring paths around an individual’s living area are clear so they have freedom of movement
• Adding in grab rails to preferred locations (not just where we think they should go)
  
  

4. Encourage Regular Social Choice

Meaningful empowerment in health and social care extends to supporting individuals in making social choices. 

This might mean helping to arrange visits from family and friends or transport to social events. The key is to ensure an individual has a choice in who they see to help maintain their chosen social life.

5. Assist with Responsible Financial Choices

Even small financial decisions matter when you’re supporting care users. This might mean helping someone maintain control of their personal allowance for treats or supporting them to make independent purchases when shopping. 

Communication Tips

Communication in health and social care can significantly impact empowerment. Adapting your language to offer real choices helps people maintain control of their daily lives.

Examples:

Instead of saying: "You need to take your medication now"

Try: "It's time for your medication - would you like it with water or juice?"

Instead of: "We're having soup for lunch"

Try: "Today we have soup or sandwich options - which would you prefer?"

These simple changes in how we phrase things can make a significant difference to someone's sense of dignity and control. Remember to always look for opportunities to offer genuine choices, even in routine situations.

Professional Development in Empowerment

At Virtual College, we understand that delivering genuine empowerment requires skilled and knowledgeable care workers. Our engaging online health and social care courses help care professionals develop the expertise they need to support true empowerment. Grow your skills today.