6. Identifying People’s Needs and Strengths
Working in partnership to gather information to agree health and social care needs in the context of the preferred lifestyle and aspirations of service users, their families, carers and friends.
‘The focus of this capability is on helping the service user and those involved with them to describe their experiences in such a way as to identify their strengths and formulate their needs. In order for this to be meaningful this must take a whole systems approach and take account of every aspect of the person’s life.’
(Department of Health 2004)
What this means is: Working with others to agree someone’s needs in all areas of their life, keeping in mind the way that they like to live and things for which they, their family, carers and friends hope.
To identify people’s needs and strengths you need to:
- carry out (or contribute to) a systematic, whole systems assessment that has, as its focus, the strengths and needs of the service user and those family and friends who support them
- work in a way that acknowledges the personal, social, cultural and spiritual strengths and needs of the individual
- work in partnership with the individual’s support network to collect information to assist understanding of the person and their strengths and needs.
This capability lies at the heart of the Care Programme Approach.
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