Choice –
it’s one of the biggest words you’ll hear bandied about when you’re caring for
someone.
The big
rule of person-centred care is that you respect the rights of each individual
and as far as you can, support them to live as they would wish. As long as they
have mental capacity, you must always give them a choice about how they want to
do things, what they want to wear and what they’d like to eat.
I was
thinking the other day how nice Nick looks lately, almost back to his old self
if you didn’t look too closely. We bought him a lot of new clothes for
Christmas and his birthday, none of them chosen by him but all by us thinking
what he might like, and he looks fantastic.
He’d always taken a lot of pride in
his dress but in the last year of living on his own he’d been buying things
that made him look ten years older. Shapeless jackets and baggy old-feller's trousers and slip on shoes.
By the time he came to Sheffield and was
still more or less dressing himself in the mornings, he had really started
looking like a funny old bloke, wearing an odd assortment of garments that didn’t go
together at all. That was his choice, though. Now we’ve overridden it by buying his
clothes ourselves, even though it’s him who decides in the morning which of
them he wants to wear. Though the carers override his choice too when he wants
the same socks four days running, because HD dramatically affects your sense
of personal hygiene.
Then there’s
the wine, the chocolate and now the CBD. Nick became obsessed with the latter
and wants it all the time. I’ve had to keep explaining that he can’t just binge
on it as there was only a limited amount, when it’s gone it’s gone, and six lots
at once really won’t make him feel better than one.
I’m
rationing everything, including Mars Bars (which he’s not really meant to have
in the first place because they’re a dietician’s nightmare. But he longs for
them so), because otherwise he doesn’t know when to stop and will neck it all
at once. I’ve tried giving him the benefit of the doubt, but rationing is the
result of bitter experience and seems to be the only way to go. I might not exactly know best, but in his best interests I've got a pretty good idea.
So if the
person has capacity but limited understanding of the consequences and wants to
do something that is going to be bad for them, then giving them a choice is
tricky.
It still doesn’t
sit quite right with me, but I’ve become the publican who’s seen it all,
saying, “ That's all for tonight. You’ve had enough, sir”
