The core purpose of adult social care is to support people to achieve a better life. We do this by helping them identify their strengths, realise their potential and live independently and well within their communities.
This includes providing help and support for people who are frail, have disabilities, neurodiversity, mental health conditions and for those who care for them.
We provide information and advice about care and support to all our residents. We offer short-term help to promote independence and longer-term support for people who have more complex needs.
Social care can include 'personal care' such as support for washing, dressing and getting out of bed in the morning. It can include wider support to help people stay active and engaged in their communities.
Social care is also about helping to improve the lives of carers in Dorset, ensuring they are supported in their caring role, while continuing to achieve their own goals and aspirations.
What we do in adult social care
We aim to promote independence and wellbeing, through personalised care and support. We focus on the person’s strengths and outcomes they want to achieve.
This means we are:
- looking at what a person can do as much as what they can't do
- having conversations, rather than focusing on prescribed assessment questions
- understanding what is most important to a person, their concerns, what solutions they have already tried and what might be their best next steps
- considering the person to be the expert in their own life, and listening carefully to what matters to them
- being creative and helping the person to build on their strengths
For carers, we look at how the carer can be supported to look after their own health and wellbeing and to have a fulfilling life of their own alongside their caring commitments.
Short-term and long-term care
Social care is sometimes broken down into two categories of short-term care and long-term care.
Short-term care refers to support that is time limited and has the purpose of helping people to regain or increase their independence. This can then delay or avoid a need for long-term support. Long-term support is provided for people with complex and ongoing needs. It is delivered either in the community or in accommodation such as a nursing home.
A person’s needs are usually discussed at their first point of contact with us. This involves a conversation with the person and/or their representative. This is to establish what the person can do for themselves and what outcomes they are looking to achieve.
It will also look at what support they currently have or think they need and what is available within the person’s own network or community. We will also discuss what equipment and technology is available to enable a person to remain independent.
This ensures an incremental approach before we look at what further support may be required. We aim to ensure a person gets the right type of help at the right time and from the right place. This involves working closely with our partners in health and the voluntary sector to ensure we find the best way of meeting a person’s needs.