An ethical dilemma is when more than one choice/option is put in front of you and you have to identify your options and the possible consequences for the decision that you make. In my area of responsibility I sometimes face ethical dilemmas. One ethical dilemma that I have faced is regarding two service users that are living in their own home. They have been struggling to live without help, so our organisation took over their care.
When our company took over their care we put in full time support as we felt that they needed this support to enable them to then live a better quality of life. The couple were grateful for the extra support but social services said that they did not need that much support and that their independence was being taken away. So we reduced the hours of support that we gave to them. One of the service users was then taken into hospital so we felt that these hours were then needed again to support him and his wife.
We had an ethical dilemma of placing the wife in respite, or putting in extra hours to support her whilst her husband was in the hospital. I had to decide whether the wife would be better off in respite or under our care. I came to the conclusion that it was more ethical to keep her in her own home with carers that she was familiar with. This was a difficult decision that involved weighing up extra costs and our duty of care. Another example is regarding a service user who has a history of seizures but has not had one in 5 years.
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It is general practice that this service user should not be left unsupervised in case he has a seizure. We also have another service user who lives independently with some support who lives in the upstairs flat. He recently had an accident (slipped in the bathroom) and needed help from the staff member on duty downstairs with the previously mentioned service user. The ethical dilemma here is that the staff member is not supposed to leave the service user alone.
Thus, the staff member had to use their discretion to make a decision as to whether they should leave the service user upstairs or attend to the issue with the service user. In this scenario I advised that the service user who should not be left alone should accompany the staff member upstairs to attend to the service user that required help. However, in extreme instances it may be necessary for the service user to be left downstairs whilst another service user is attended to.
