Duty of Care vs Dignity of Risk

Duty of Care (the basics) Based in negligence law This means we can be sued if negligence is proven As workers we have a ‘duty of care’ to avoid injury or loss of clients

What is duty of Care??? The legal responsibility to avoid acts or omissions that could be reasonably foreseen to injure or harm other people. Cara has a duty of care to customers to reduce or limit the amount of harm or injury they may experience as result of our support. Cara does not have a duty to protect the customer from themselves.

Duty of Care in practice Anticipate and plan for risks to customers and take care to prevent them coming to harm. Consider: Legal: what the law says we should do Professional/ethical: what the industry generally thinks we should do Organisational: what Cara policy says we should do Personal: what our own beliefs and values say we should do

The balancing act Cara needs to balance the safety of the customer with other concerns: The safety of other people/support workers Other rights of the customer (such as privacy) The aims of the Service (eg: to assist the customer to remain living independently in the community) Cara’s limits in terms of available funding and other resources

Rights Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (the Convention, DisCo, CRPD): Participation for people with disabilities on the same basis as all people in the economic and social life of the community The right of individuals with disability to make choices about their life (to the extent they are able)

Where Duty of Care and Rights clash… We have Dignity of Risk

Dignity of risk means… Respecting each individual’s autonomy Respecting each individual’s right to self-determination Respecting the right of customers to make choices for themselves. EVEN IF we believe these choices may endanger their health or longevity Individuals have the right to make mistakes and learn from them

Try thinking about this