Reflective Account

Reflective Account 1
I was sat with a resident in the lounge her name is Mrs. D, she is 89 years of age, White and her preferred language is English. Mrs. D’s religion is unknown. To gather this information about Mrs. D I asked her but she was unable to tell me so I read Mrs. D’s care plan and found the information there. I want to reflect on an experience I gained from sitting with Mrs. D in the lounge. I passed Mrs. D a leaflet that I was looking at and she read out the words in bold print. I don’t know why but I made an assumption that she wouldn’t be able to read as she has dementia. By reflecting upon my assumption I now realise that I acted in a discriminatory way and this action is seen as unacceptable within the social work setting. I have learnt that assumption is a bad form of practice and this experience will make me more aware of my actions in future practice and allow me to practice in an anti-discriminatory way. I feel maybe I made this assumption due to my inexperience of working with elderly mentally ill people and being unaware of their capabilities. I feel I did not have enough knowledge of the dementia illness and did not understand fully how it impacts on a person’s life differently. I have experience of working with adults with learning disabilities and I have always worked in a person centered way. This experience has made me aware that I should always use person centered practice and treat every person as equal no matter what their needs may be. After reflecting I addressed my discriminatory practice, by acting in an anti-oppressive manner and spoke to a member of staff on behalf of Mrs. D about her possibly having some reading material. I spoke to a staff nurse and he said that they used to have a mobile library come up to the home but it was not used so the service stopped. But he assured me that Mrs. D does look at magazines and newspapers and if she did require anything else then her niece ensures that she has it. He informed me that the...