Philip has not been treated with respect, by being assaulted through restraint against his will.
Philip should have been consulted before such an action was taken.
Guardianship approval should have been sought to physically assist Philip to volunteer his arm when undergoing blood tests if Philip is unable to provide informed consent.
An educative program that supports Philip in overcoming his fear of needles has not been considered.
There is no documentation supporting the procedures or any incident reports.
There are violations in regard to occupational health and safety laws.
Learning Topic 4 Protecting the rights and interests of clients
This topic should provide you with the ability to recognise and report to an appropriate person any witnessed signs that are consistent with financial, physical, emotional or sexual abuse or neglect of the client. You will learn to:
implement work practices which support the protection of children and young people;
use relevant child protection procedures to report incidents or suspicions of harm; and
provide prompt and accurate reporting of relevant specific and general circumstances surrounding risk of harm.
Section 4.4 Client rights and responsibilities
Activity 4.2
1. Think about the CSI and list the rights that you think clients have.
Read the following case study and answer the question that follows.
Sean has been a Residential Support Worker for two years and supports Philip who has a dual diagnosis of bi-polar and an intellectual disability. Philip’s medication requires a monthly review requiring a blood test for analysis. Often when the community nurse arrives to draw blood, Philip has refused the test due to the fear of needles. On one occasion this led to Philip being hospitalised due to medication toxicity. Philip is now restrained on the ground, sometimes by up to four workers, to obtain blood. Sean has authorised this action. No documentation exists regarding this situation.
2. Which client rights are not being upheld in this case study? Give reasons for your answer.
4.4.1 Customer responsibilities
The concept of rights cannot be viewed in isolation from the concept of responsibilities. While clients have a right to expect quality services, they also have responsibilities to fulfil as a client of a CSIagency.
These include:
Letting the service know if they will not be available to attend an appointment;
Respecting the rights of staff, management, volunteers and other clients;
Taking responsibility for the decisions they make;
Following through on tasks that have been agreed to; and
Respecting and abiding by the rules of the service (as long as they are reasonable and have been agreed to in the first place).
The more we encourage clients to fulfil their responsibilities, the more we are fostering independence, which should be part of our ultimate goal in providing assistance. For example, if you are working with a young person in supported accommodation and they are continually breaking the rules—coming home after curfew, not paying agreed rent, being rude and disrespectful to staff and other residents—and you do nothing about it, then what are you teaching them? By having clear rights and responsibilities and clear sanctions for not fulfilling responsibilities, the young person may learn that responsibilities are part of life and there are consequences when we don’t fulfil them, such as being evicted. A hard lesson in life learnt early on, may lead to improved life skills and be a step towards independence.
4.4.2 Keep clients informed
Clients need to be as informed as possible about their rights and responsibilities. Comprehensive information about the service should be provided at the referral and assessment stage, including information about the eligibility criteria (who can use the service), the assessment process, service rules, services offered, staff qualifications, confidentiality exclusions, client rights and responsibilities, complaints procedure and any fees involved. This can be in the form of an information handbook or pamphlet and should be in a format accessible to clients, for example translated into relevant languages or in simple format for a client with an intellectual disability.
4.4.3 Client participation forums
Agencies need to have a structure in place for clients to have a say about the services being offered and what needs to be improved. This may be through representation on management committees, holding focus groups and regularly conducting surveys to seek client feedback.
4.4.4 Monitoring by funding bodies
This varies across government departments and funding programs, however, funding bodies should play a role in ensuring that services are fulfilling their legislative and funding responsibilities in the area of upholding client rights. This may be through visiting agencies occasionally or written reports provided every year as part of the accountability process.
4.4.5 Making sure that clients know how to complain
Basic human rights include the right to be heard—better still, some rights, like legal rights, mean being able to take action to recover any lost rights or even seek compensation. Legitimate client complaints also provide valuable feedback to the service so that services and staff can improve.
Activity 4.3
Choose an agency that you have access to and find out how client rights are upheld in that agency. Inform the agency that you are asking the following questions as part of your study.
1. What information about the service is provided to clients when they are referred and assessed? Comment on the format.
2. What ongoing forums exist for clients to give feedback about the service they receive?
3. What monitoring of the service is conducted by the funding body?
4. Is there a complaints procedure in place? Also comment on anything the agency could do to further ensure that client rights are upheld.
