LO7 ETHICS:

As we have been progressing with this service and in planning physical activities that are well suited towards cognitively impaired seniors, I have been able to engage with complex ethical considerations that come with working with and taking responsibility for assisting a more vulnerable group of individuals.

For example, the main responsibility of us, as student leaders within the activity, was to plan and lead appropriate and suitable exercise for the senior citizens who were suffering from mental and cognitive health issues. Therefore, an ethical consideration that we were very careful to abide by at all times was to base all our decision making and planning of the activities on thorough primary and secondary research to ensure that we were not planning or carrying out activities which would put the seniors in a vulnerable or uncomfortable position. To do this, we were careful to be constantly in contact with the care home where they would provide feedback on our activity sessions and input into what types of movement were unsuitable for the seniors, such as bending of the knees. I feel that participating in this activity has broadened my understanding of being constantly cognisant of the ethical and moral implications of our actions, specifically when working with members of our larger community. I was able to see firsthand the importance of planning and improving on our activities constructively to most ethically suit the needs of those who we helped to serve. Thus, I feel that I became more ethically principled and aware of both myself and those around me as a result.