The document outlines 15 principles of client-centered care, emphasizing the importance of empowering clients to participate in their own care and the necessity of understanding their unique perspectives. Key elements include respecting client autonomy, identifying individual needs, and creating a humane care environment. Overall, the principles advocate for a collaborative, respectful approach that values clients as experts in their own lives.

1. 15 Principles of Client
Centered Care
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes, PhD
Executive Director: AllCEUs.com
Podcast Host: Counselor Toolbox and Happiness Isn’t Brain Surgery
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2. Definition and Benefits
Client Centered Care empowers the client to actively
participate in his/her care and develop an understanding of
the interaction between his/her environment and self.
Improves treatment compliance
Leads to more rapid and enduring improvements
Starts with caring
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3. Characterize caring
Listening to and empathizing with clients’ points of views
Recognizing clients as unique individuals
Never allowing your values to interfere with clients’ right
to receive care
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4. Client Centered Care
An approach in which
Clients are viewed as whole persons
It is not merely about delivering services where the client is
located
It involves advocacy, empowerment, and respecting the
client’s autonomy, voice, self-determination, and participation
in decision-making.
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5. Empowerment
Empowerment is “the participation of individuals and
communities in a social action process that targets both
individual and community change outcomes.” A concept
that is crucial is that community workers and professionals
must “start where the people are”
Initial and ongoing assessment of clients’ values, feelings,
actions are integral to any community work.
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6. Humanistic Approach
Based on knowing the client and the client’s perspective
through continuous dialogue.
Views the client as a whole, and recognizes the
interconnectedness and interrelationship between the
client and the environment.
Focuses on restoring health, harmony and enhanced quality
of life.
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7. Participatory Management
Participatory Management is the extent to which managers
involve staff in decisions regarding their work and aspects
of the work environment,
Characterized by
the manager seeking staff input and feedback about the work
environment
involving staff in decision making about their own work
providing recognition and support and taking action on the
input
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8. Reflective Practice
An ongoing process that the counselor utilizes in order to
examine his/her own nursing practice, evaluate strengths,
and identify ways of continually improving practice to meet
client needs.
Questions useful in framing the reflective process include:
“What have I learned?”
“What has been most useful?”
“ What else do I need?”
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9. Respect
Respect clients’ wishes, concerns, values, priorities,
perspectives, and strengths.
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10. Clients Are Experts for Their Own Lives
Clients know themselves the best or they would not be in
this situation.
You should follow your client’s lead with respect to
information giving, decision making, care in general and
involvement of others.
Clients define the goals that coordinate the practices of
the health care team.
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11. Identifying Concerns/Needs
 Initiate discussion or strategies (i.e. Focus groups and
surveys) in order to understand the client’s perspective
regarding his/her health and quality of life.
 Seek to clarify the hopes, wishes, preferences, strengths,
needs, and concerns of the client, from his/her
perspective.
 Seek to build the client’s capacity (ability to reach
independence) based on the client’s goals.

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12. Represent the client’s/community’s perspective of health,
goals in life, as well as their concerns when making
recommendations to others
 Follow the client’s lead when providing information or
teaching what the client wants with respect to his/her
health/illness situation
 Document the client’s/community’s perspective with
regard to health and quality of life, goals, wishes, choices
regarding information, and concerns
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13. Making Decisions
 Identify priorities for change or action.
 Identify options from client’s/community’s perspective.
 Act as a resource for clients in deciding care strategies.
Clarify and provide information or teaching that clients
want and say they need, with respect to their
health/illness situation or possible health strategies.
 Act as advocate for the client’s/community’s values and
decisions
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14. Caring and Service
 Involve clients throughout the caring and service process.
 Respect and honour client choices and decisions though
they may not be related to the illness/ disease process or
health services and regardless of the counselor’s own
values.
 Use trust-building strategies to develop the counselor-
client relationship.

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15. Demonstrate respect and value for clients by listening with
openness.
 Use positive language to discuss clients. Use the client’s
own words to describe situations
 Involve family/significant others as per client wishes.
 Ensure that the client’s goals are central to the
coordination, continuity, and consistency of care
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16. Evaluating Outcomes
 Engage the client in evaluating care delivery and health
related outcomes.
 Support the client if or when goals cannot be met.
 Demonstrate an attitude of openness and a willingness to
change in order to improve the quality of care from the
client’s perspective.
 Change care plans and practice approaches in order to
improve quality from the client’s perspective
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17. Successful implementation of client
centered care requirements
Organizational and managerial support.
Organizational champions
Education and training for counselors and counselors
Care delivery that ensures continuity of care and continuity
of caregiver.
Organizational and unit policies congruent with client
centered care
Positive work-life environment
Outcomes evaluation
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18. Key elements of a client centered system
include all of the following
Do clients feel they are respected?
Do they feel caregivers value their personal expertise?
Do clients say they are listened to?
Is there evidence of the client’s/community’s view in the
plan of care/program plan?
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19. Humanizing the physical environment,
routines, and the language of care giving
Creating a more humane and home-like environment
with personal items and pictures demystifying routines
and language
Providing freedom to choose
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20. Values and Beliefs of Client Centered Care
Respect
Human dignity
Clients are experts for their own lives
Clients as leaders
Continuity and consistency of care and caregiver
Timeliness
Responsiveness and universal access
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21. Core Processes of Client Centered Care
 Identifying Concerns/Needs
 Allowing the client to Make Decisions
 Involve the client in caring and Service
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22. Decision coaching
 Monitoring decisional conflict (uncertainty about the
course of action and related modifiable deficits in
knowledge, values clarity and support);
 Tailoring decision support to needs (e.g. Facilitating
access to evidence-based information, verifying
understanding, clarifying values, building skills in
deliberation, communication, and accessing support;
and
 Monitoring progress in decision making and decision
quality. The goal is to help clients improve the decision
making process and decision quality
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23. Patient Decision Aids
Evidence-based tools designed to prepare clients to
participate in making specific and deliberative choices
among healthcare options in ways they prefer.
Provide evidence-based information about a health
condition, the options, associated benefits, harms,
probabilities, and scientific uncertainties;
 Help clients recognize the values-sensitive nature of the
decision and clarify the value they place on the benefits,
harms, and scientific uncertainties.
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24. Strategies include: describing the options in enough detail
that clients can imagine what it is like to experience the
physical, emotional, and social effects; and guiding clients
to consider which benefits and harms are most important
to them
 Provide structured guidance in the steps of decision
making and communication of their informed values with
others involved in the decision (e.g. Clinician, family,
friends).
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25. Summary: Key Concepts in Client Centered
Care
Identifying concerns and needs for individualized, culturally sensitive,
trauma informed care.
Seek to clarify the hopes, wishes, preferences, strengths, needs, and
concerns of the client, from his/her perspective.
Seek to build the client’s capacity to reach independence based on the
client’s goals
Clarify the client’s wishes and follow his/her lead in determining the
involvement of others in their health care.
Represent the client’s/community’s perspective of health, goals in life,
as well as their concerns when making recommendations to others
Follow the client’s lead when providing information or teaching that
the client wants with respect to his/her health/illness situation. Teach
the client in a way that is relevant to his/her personal reality
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26. Summary: Key Concepts cont…
Document the client’s/community’s perspective with regard to health
and quality of life, goals, wishes, choices regarding information, and
concerns
Make the client the key decision-maker in planning care and services.
Identify priorities for change or action
Clarify and provide information or teaching that clients want and say
they need, with respect to their health/illness situation or possible
health strategies.
Acknowledge the client’s expertise and encourage clients/communities
to share their knowledge and skills.
Demonstrate respect and value for clients by listening with openness
Use strengths-based, positive language and the client's own words to
describe situations
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27. Summary: Key Concepts cont…
Engage the client in evaluating care delivery and health
related outcomes by using specific processes/evaluations
that provide continuous feedback from the client’s
perspective about the quality of care
Demonstrate an attitude of openness and a willingness to
change in order to improve the quality of care from the
client’s perspective
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