Championing Dignity in Care

This week I became a Dignity Champion.  I felt quite privileged to be following in the footsteps of Michael Parkinson who has been the Government's Dignity Ambassador since 2008 and frontman for the Dignity in Care Campaign.  I am also joining a growing  group of people from all  walks of life - Dignity Champions -  who believe passionately that Dignity is a basic human right and that care services must be compassionate, person-centred as well as efficient.  Dignity Champions  promote dignity within the care sector and take practical steps to improve dignity for clients in service delivery.

Training is Essential to Good Quality Care

We held an  induction training session today.  Our new recruits arrived early and full of anticipation for the day ahead and the role they will be undertaking in the future.  My welcome to them included a summary of our values and ethos and how as an organisation we will be supporting them in their future role and the training they will receive with SureCare.

Helping Clients to Live Independently and Safely

It seems scarcely a week goes by without a horror story being reported in the press about elderly people who have been subjected to revolting forms of abuse.  It seems that no matter where you are - at home or in residential accomodation, if you are elderly,  you are at risk.   And in addition to violence, neglect and doorstep fraudsters which are all too common and well covered in the press, perpetrators find ever more ingenious ways to take advantage of the elderly.

I was reading this week about a couple who befriended their neighbour, a woman in her eighties with health problems living alone without family and few friends.  This "caring" couple started out by befriending their neighbour, helping with her chores, progressing to cancelling her care workers, moving her into their home to "look after her", isolating her from her contacts and eventually persuading  her into signing over her home to them.   Luckily for this lady one of her "real" friends became suspicious, investigated the couple and found that they had a history of preying on elderly women living alone in valuable properties and had managed to acquire three other properties in this way.  The friend reported the case to Social Services, but although they ageed to keep an eye on the lady, there was little they could  do in these circumstances when the lady is grateful to her "friends" and seems to be be acting of her own free will.

We need to be vigilant about our vulnerable elderly neighbours. Care Support Workers can be a great help in looking out for their elderly clients ensuring that they are visited regularly and noting anything unusual  in the day to day activities of the home.  This can give peace of mind to relatives.   They can also be sure that our Care Staff are trustworthy because at SureCare, we take safeguarding of our clients very seriously.  All our Care Support Workers have an enhanced CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check and two written references from previous employers.

We then  train them to spot any signs of abuse and have robust procedures to ensure that any suspected or actual abuse is reported and acted upon promptly. The director of SureCare also belongs to the Warwickshire Safeguarding Network to keep up to date with developments in safeguarding and cascades information on safeguarding down to all staff. We are constantly vigilant to ensure that all our clients  are able to live full and independent lives in safety. 

If you are a relative of an elderly adult who needs care please see our website for more information on our services: www.surecarewarks.co.uk

Looking After Our Staff

We have been recruiting staff this last week as Care Support Workers.  Their role will be to work with older people in their homes supporting them with personal and domestic taks to enable them to live independently for as long as possible.

Listening to how some Care workers are treated by Care Agencies makes me very angry.  Care Workers are not the best paid and have very low status in society in spite of the critical work that they do in ensuring older people with care needs - who are some of the most vulnerable people in our society - are supported at home.  Poor training, poor supervision, poor monitoring, poor management, call cramming and so on are all things I'm hearing  from potential recruits are widespread in the care sector particularly amongst private agencies.

In SureCare, our starting point in providing high quality person-centred care is to look after our staff. Because we beleive that if our staff are well paid, well supported, well trained and supervised they will in turn do a good job of looking after their clients.  Simply, by respecting the personhood of the Care Worker, we respect the personhood of the client. 

Our calls to clients are a minimum of 1/2 hour and we will ensure that our staff remain to for the full half hour because the client deserves to get their full time allocation that they have paid for. There is no call cramming and adequate travelling time factored in for staff to reach their next client.  We give staff a full induction programme plus additional training in  important areas such as medication, moving and handling  and food hygiene.  All our staff will also undergo specialist dementia courses to support our clients with dementia. When they have completed this training they will be able to wear a Specialist Care Worker badge to indicate their completion of this additional training.   We encourage our Care Workers to complete NVQs in social care.   Monthly supervison, yearly appraisal and regular team meetings all contribute to supporting and mentoring our staff  so they can provide the best care for our clients. 

We are always looking for highly motivated and committed care staff.  If you know anyone who would like to join our team please see our website at http://www.surecarewarks.co.uk/  or email us at info@surecarewarks.co.uk for more information.

Person Centred Care

We hear a lot about "person-centred" care in the care sector to the extent that you can't be delivering "good" care unless it's "person-centred" now.  But what does it mean?   Trying to discover what it really means is not straightforward and there seems to be many interpretations.   It can mean individualised care or a set of techniques to use with people with dementia or just a value base. 

The best definition which I've found for person-centred care is from Dawn Brooker* who describes four elements to person centred care using the following "VIPS" model:
1. Valuing people with dementia and their carers - promoting their rights and inclusion regardless of their age or abilities.
2. Treating people as Individuals with all their history, personality, preferences and resources.
3. Understanding the Perspective for the person with dementia, their experience and empathising with them.
4. Recognising the need for a  Social environment which enriches and promotes relationships and focuses on the abilities of the person with dementia.

This is an excellent  blueprint for person-centered care planning and delivery and for developing our domiciliary care service within SureCare.  We value people by ensuring that they get the time and quality of service which they deserve.. We treat each client as  an individual who has choice and aim to focus on supporting the client to make the most of  his or her abilities. We aim to provide a service which supports people in their own homes to remain part of their community and lead as full lives as possible. 

For more information on SureCare services please go to http://www.surecarewarks.co.uk/

*See Person Centred Dementia Care by Dawn Brooker ISBN 978-1-84310-337-0

Social Care - An Election Issue

It's a well known fact that the population of Great Britain is getting older -around 34% of the population is over 50 and this is set to rise to 40% by 2026.  This is a huge challenge to all involved in the social care sector as  it is estimated, that over 1.7 million people will require social care.

The National Audit Commissio's report, Under Pressure, published this month is a sobering read on the costs of care for an aging population.  It says that increasing levels of public debt coupled with falling income from taxation  means that the Government will be under pressure to cut public spending. Consequently,  Local Authorities will be under pressure to cut their levels of spending just  as more and more people are going to be requiring care.

The reasons for the increase in care is that age-realted health conditions are on the increase. Older people disagnosed with Dementia, for example,will double over the next 30 years to 1.4 million and the associated costs will treble to over £50 billion a year.

The cost of  future care was debated accross the country last year in a government consultation following the green paper on Shaping the Future of Care Together.  The paper proposed a National Care Service  with three main options for funding future care:  the first is for a partnership of people and the State sharing the cost based on ability to pay, the second is a voluntary insurance scheme and the third is a compulsory payment of £20,000 which can be deferred until after death. 

Paying for social care is a tricky question and none of the major parties in government seeming to want to get to grips with the issues favouring instead sensationalist prouncements such as "free care  for everyone with cancer" or a £20,000 "death tax".   Attempts to find common ground has so far been unsuccessful with all parties blaming each other for the collapse of talks.

With a general election looming the funding of social care will be high on the agenda as it should be.  We should be listening closely to what the main parties are saying about social care and what their propositions are for funding care in the future.  They have all known about the demographic time-bomb for many years and have been reluctant to accept responsibility and make unpalatable decisions.  This issue won't go away - and it affects us all.  Who will give us  the care we need when we grow old? Will they get our vote?

For more information on SureCare Home Care service please go to www.surecarewarks.co.uk


 

Where is the Love? - Valentine's Day thoughts

Valentine's Day is a celebration of love and I would like to take the opportunity to think about love in my business.  In social care we do see a lot of people in difficulties, with illness, disability and difficult family situations.  However, there is also a lot of love in this business which isn't often recognised.

I often meet people who give up their jobs and livelihoods to look after a spouse or a parent or other member of the family.  Parents with a disabled child who dedicate their whole lives to  their child and never have time for themselves.  Neighbours and friends who give their time and compassion to those who need them even though they have their own lives and difficulties.  These are all carers whose love and dedication is needed to save the economy £81 bn each year yet get so little recognition for their  vital role in society. Lets think about carers on Valentine's Day.

Care Workers often get bad press  - I'm sure that many people will have seen  some of  the TV expose of bad domiciliary care agencies or read press reports of  cruel care  work practices. The really good Care Workers never get any press time.  I have met lots of wonderful care staff who work with great dedication, compasssion and loving kindness with their clients.  I'd like to celebrate these wonderful people who work in difficult conditions on low pay and without any recognition for the excellent work they do year in and year out.  In the recent bad weather many of these workers were true heroines and heros ensuring that their clients received a service even if it meant  walking through the snow for miles to get to a client's house.  Lets think about Care Workers on Valentine's Day.

There are many volunteers who work in social care providing a huge range of services which are vital to supporting people lives and well being. From providing talking books for the visually impaired to hot dinners for homeless people there are many many people who give their time for love and compassion for those who are less fortunate.  This pool of volunteers is getting smaller as fewer people are taking on volunteer roles and it often falls to older retired people to fill the gaps. Volunteers are also vital to our society and their work often goes unnoticed in our busy world.  Lets think about all the volunteers amongst us on Valentine's Day.

So there is a lot of love in social care and it seems an ideal time on Valentine's Day to think about all the people who work in our field with love and dedication.  I salute them all and wish them all a very Happy Valentine's Day!

For more information on carers please go to the SureCare website at http://www.surecarecarewarks.co.uk/