Legal and Ethical Issues Encountered in Health and Social Care: Elderly People with Dementia in Residential Home.

This assignment will identify and evaluate the legal and ethical issues within the health and social care for elderly people with dementia and living in residential homes. It will address the difference between the legal and ethical issues and the impact it has on the person suffering from the disease, their family and the role that the professionals have in decision making for the individual’s wellbeing.
Dementia is a disease which causes mental debility and affects one’s way of intelligent, attentiveness, recollection and problem-solving (NHS, 2013). As a result of dysfunction of brain cells in some parts of the brain it affects the thinking process then dementia occurs and it usually comes with age (Ibid). It is estimated that 560 000 people suffer from dementia in England and as a result the NHS and Social Care spend about 3.3billion (National Audit Offices)
Ethical principles is focused on the morals and values of the individual who has dementia (Cribb and Duncan, 2002) Decision made by family to have a person who has dementia to live in a residential home from their personal home can be seen as inconsiderate to the individual values. It is for the best for the decision to be made before the individual was ill, the family members will feel less guilty. In the event that circumstances of the family members are not capable of caring it is understandable (Curthbert and Quallington, 2008). On the other hand this could be the best decision as cares in residential homes have skills development to provide professional care (Nice, 2010). Naidoo and Willis (2009) stated that the consequential theory is there to measure the end result of action in this case considering the health and wellbeing of people with dementia. The pr...

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...tion with the outside world and loss of their life style. Communities need to be educated on dementia so that as to include and create activities they can join in. The residential homes decision makers need to monitor the cares’ behaviour as they and address issues within their working environment to improve and keep everything up to standard. The government need to implement and review their policies to make ensure quality care in residential homes. According to United Kingdom Health and Social Care (UKHCA), (2012) and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have been working on introducing new guidance which will help dementia patient to get more funding to live in their own homes and avoid living in residential home which is a positive move as people will still enjoy the comfort of their homes and receive excellent care.