Introduction
The Adult Day Care Organization that is to be established will provide care and companionship for the adults/seniors who require assistance as well as supervision during the day when their family members are working or carrying out other duties. The organization is very important to many family members or the caregivers of the seniors, as it will allow them to have the necessary freedom to go to work or to attend to other personal businesses that are necessary for the well being of their families (Allen, J.2003).
Furthermore, the family members and the care givers of the seniors/participants can be able to have a peace of mind knowing clearly well that the adult relative is being taken good care of and is safe as they go on with their daily endeavors. The organization will combine two departments of the Adult social day care and Adult day health care. While the Adult social day care will provide recreation facilities, meals and social activities to the participants, the Adult day health care will offer the necessary health requirements and attention. In this paper, the plan in action and the ethical framework of the organization will be discussed.
Description of the organization
As earlier mentioned, the Adult Day Care organization will ensure that the elder members of the families are well taken care of while the other family members go on with their daily activities as required. As earlier stated, the organization will combine two aspects of providing care to the adults; social and health requirements. There is no doubt that in any society people needs to have their needs catered for, be it social or health. For assistance, participants require to have healthy and proper meals because more often their nutritional requirements may differ from those of the younger members of the families. In the organization, a social care department will be established to ensure that the seniors eat well and take part in recreational activities as much as it is necessary.
With age, people tend to develop health problems that are usually related to their old age. In order to prevent and cure health complications in the adults, it is necessary that the complications in the adults it is necessary that the complications are well known, and necessary actions taken to assist the affected individuals. The family members of the seniors are usually busy working or doing some other work, which may deny them time to provide the seniors with the necessary medical attention. The organization will solve this problem by having an Adult Health care department where intensive health care will be provided to the seniors, as well as the therapeutic services.
The organization will offer several programs to the seniors through a well-developed schedule. Examples of services that the organization will offer to the seniors through a well developed schedule include, meals, recreation, exercise, education, physical therapy, socialization, health screening, counseling, transport and medical care.
The organization will provide care to the participants during the working hours of the day and it will collaborate with the hospitals nearby to provide necessary health care to the participants, but the organization will operate independently. The organization’s financial resources will be obtained from charges made by relatives of the participants, grants and donations from individuals, the government or organizations. The organization will work with the license from the government and it will join the Adult Day Care Association within the state where it’s located. Liaising with the National Adult Day services Association will be important for the organization’s since general information about the organization can be given to the public.
Mission Statement
The organization will provide great care and companionship to elderly members of the society/participants, through its activities of offering good social and medical care to the them. The realization that productive members of the society need to work and carry out other personal activities properly without worrying about the elderly is a great motivation to the organization which makes the organization to be committed and dedicated to serve the society and its well being as best as it can.
Value Statement
One of the greatest human values is the right to live and this right is only made possible by good physical health and social interactions between the members of the society. The organization upholds every individual’s right to live as one of its core value and therefore will provide the participants with a good and healthy life as the precious gift of life.
Supporting the family institution is another value that the organization promotes. It is only through making it possible for the family members go to work and to take care of other family-related activities that the families will live in unity and harmony. Respect and education will be given to the participants, a move that will boost their self-esteem and confidence. Religious education will be offered so as to build spirituality in the participants, which will create in them an inner peace.
Code of Ethics
The Adult Day care organization will ensure that the right conduct and good life are both encompassed within the organization’s operations whereby the realization of the full potential of the organization, and acting in accordance with nature will promote the good done by the organization (www.caads.org/pdf/pdf/code-if-ethics-new-1-04.pdf). The following will act as the organization’s code of ethics;
- The organization should and will be committed to provide the best health and well-being services to the participants with great professionalism.
- All the staff and the management will at no time undermine the organizations excellence for their selfish self-interests.
- The highest level of quality care shall be provided to the participants by all the organization’s staff, who will be expected to work in accordance to the standards and requirements of the regulatory authorities.
- All the participants/seniors admitted in the organization will have their rights, dignity and individuality recognized and respected.
- Any suspected case of elder abuse and other offences against the participants should be reported to the relevant authorities, and necessary action taken against the offenders.
- No form of discrimination based on the senior’s race, color, sex, origin or religion shall be tolerated. All participants should be accepted, and the necessary services provided to them equally.
- In selecting seniors appropriate for the various programs, the organization’s staff is allowed to exercise reasonable discretion.
- The organization and its staff have the responsibility of recommending participants to other alternative organizations, if the organization itself cannot cater for the individual’s needs.
- Any false or misleading information should not be offered to the participants or their family members and financial exploitation unacceptable.
- The staff members shall avoid the conflict of interests between their personal interests and those of the participants or the organization.
- All the members of the organization are expected to be accountable by maintaining high personal and professional conduct, whether one is within or outside the organization.
- The organization’s staff and management are required to report any fraud or elder abuse even outside the organization (but within the industry) to the relevant authorities.
The code of ethics of the organization will bring out the best in the employees, since the valued human rights and virtues can be developed and observed. Discouraging the self interests to override the organization’s or participant’s interest will not doubt create a good working environment for the organization and the staff to be well focused in achieving the goals and objectives as set.
Furthermore, through the code of ethics, the employees will be able to uphold human values and to prevent violation of the same rights, which will ultimately create an organization that will be respected for what it stands for. Accountability of all members will guarantee excellence to the organization and disciplining of offenders and reporting of any fraud cases will discourage the employees from taking part in illegal activities that may make the organization loose its focus (www.eldercare.gov/eldercare/public/resources/fact-sheets/adult-day.asp).
The code of ethics compliments the mission of the objective because all aspects of the code of ethics work in harmony to provide the best social and medical care to the participants. For instance, by putting the participant’s interests first and providing full details of the organization to the family members, the best services will be offered to the participants. Respecting the participants by preventing discrimination of any kind will ensure that the participant’s rights are not violated and trust developed between the organization and the public will promote unity and harmony in families while the seniors will develop self-esteem.
The organization’s culture
In any community program, actions that are undertaken aim at providing the society with the services they importantly require, something that makes the organization to be based on the “culture of service” to the society. The culture will allow the public to participate in solving problems that were once entirely blamed on the government or the state, and the issue of over-dependence by the seniors on the other members of the families can be solved through public participation. The family members are only required to pay reasonable amounts of money to have their elderly relatives well taken care of since the Adult Day care organization charges will be cheaper than those in the nursing homes (www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?I1D=14162).
The culture of providing the participants with the best social and health care at cheaper costs is integrated in the organization. The Adult Day Care programs provide a good alternative to nursing at a much cheaper cost. The culture of providing service to the community at low costs ensures that the highly valued human rights of the participants are respected, while preventing the exploitation of other family members’ rights while freedom will be offered to them.
Leadership
The organization will have a leadership structure that enhances a chain of command that allows smooth flow of authority and order, while at the same time allowing all the employees to participate in running of the organization. The highest positioning the management will be that of the Managing Director who will be required to oversee all the activities of the organization.
Below him, there will be two managers/head of departments who will be leading the two departments of the organization. One will be the Social Care Department Head and the other, Health Care Department Head. Each of one of them will have the responsibility of ensuring that the participants acquire proper social and health care respectively. Under them, there will be assistant Heads of Department who will offer assistance to the Heads when the need arises. The Supervisors will then follow, who will be required to keep in touch with what is happening on the ground and the rest of the staff will perform their duties under their relevant professional backgrounds.
The organization’s leadership structure will put into place plans and actions that will serve the community in the best way possible, with every employee being required to consult the relevant authority on how best to handle the seniors, report cases of abuse or to give recommendations when it is necessary. Every employee’s recommendations will be discussed by the organization’s top management so that services offered to the community are improved. Monitoring and Evaluation of the programs will be done with the assistance of a good leadership structure, in order to correct any errors that my compromise the culture of service to the community. As a leader, the greatest moral responsibility is and will be to ensure that the organization achieves its goals by upholding human rights and preventing any action that may violate the rights.
The Organization’s oversight
The organization’s performance will need to be measured in order for it to maintain an ethical standard. The performance will be measured by establishing a monitoring and evaluation program whereby the organization’s undertakings will be measured every month to reflect how well the activities adhere to the set code of ethics. The errors that are detected are corrected as fast as possible to ensure that no future errors are made again.
Cases of abuse to the participants that are reported will be able to be addressed as fast as possible and disciplinary actions taken against the offenders. Developing an employees’ appraisal exercise will be very vital in encouraging the employees to review their performance and to give their opinion and recommendations on how to make the organization’s performance much better. A committee of four top officials will be created to address proposals or cases of discipline that keep cropping up, and will also investigate such cases and give its recommendations which will be considered in the future running of the organization.
Evaluation will be done after every one year, so that new plans and actions that are to be taken by the organization in future can improve the performance of the organization than the previous years. An Annual General Meeting will be planned to review the past performance and to plan on the way forward of the organization.
References
California Association for Adult Day Services Code of Ethics. 2008. Web.
Wray, G. 2008. Periello volunteers at adult Day Care. Bulletin. Web.
Allen, J. 2003. Nursing Home Administration. 4th Edition. Springer Publishing Company Adult Day Care. Web.