Within my job role as a senior and currently and an acting duty manager I feel that having good communication skills is essential. It allows me to be able to share information with a range of different individuals and different services and it also allows me to build positive relationships with these individuals. As part of my job I need to be able to communicate with resident’s families, my work colleagues and other professionals e.g. social workers, doctors and other professions.

All individuals have a preferred way of communicating their wants and needs and we need to be able to offer and support those communication methods. Every individual should be offered the choice of different communication methods and staff should actively be encouraged to communicate using that chosen method, the individual’s choice should be acknowledged and respected by the person supporting them. I feel that for communication to be effective it needs to be: non-judgmental, empathetic, genuine and supportive to the individual’s needs and that the person that is communicating with the individual needs to be an active listener and needs to respect them.