Take these PRSB surveys to help better connect social care and health
When you need to use social care and health services all the time, it saddens me when you meet some people who seem to forget the individual person behind carer visits or trips to hospital.
My eldest son Shane is 22. He’s loving and affectionate and enjoys gardening, baking, swimming and visiting museums. Shane has cerebral palsy, a visual impairment and a severe learning difficulty. This has not however stopped our family from striving toward our goal of creating the best life for him.
Over the years it’s been difficult navigating through a system that is obsessed with labels. We have found that clinicians will record data that they find useful, and the social system will prioritise keeping someone safe, with little room for dreams and aspirations.
Shane had a college placement breakdown a couple of years ago and became very depressed and anxious. It was clear to us as a family that those supporting him did not focus on what was important to him as a person and blamed his challenging behaviour on his learning disability. Shane has a good life now. He’s supported by those who understand his likes and dislikes, his communication and the importance of music in his life.
Raising standards, personalising care
I’m currently the citizen lead for the Professional Record Standards Body’s social care project, which aims to develop standards for information sharing between social care and health.
Once implemented it will mean that those using social care services can benefit from a more connected system, where their needs and values can be shared and understood by all.
Over the past few months we have spoken to more than 300 professionals, carers and people who use services to determine how information needs to be shared in order to ensure that people can lead the best quality lives possible.
These range from people living in care homes, to those who have experienced homelessness or long-term illness. We've now developed two surveys, which we’d like to ask you to complete.
Both of these surveys need input from professionals and people using social care services, as well as close family members and friends. They should take no more than 15 minutes to complete and can be found here. For anyone who struggles to read English, there is also an easy read survey available. You can print off this useful sheet to help you complete the easy read survey.
Your views are extremely important in helping us to develop standards that will build better connections between social care and health, and ultimately to help people live the high-quality lives they deserve. Good care is not enough for me. It keeps us alive and safe, but improved care is where we are listened to, valued and understood.
It means our goals and health ambitions are taken into account and support is offered to help us achieve them. For this to happen integrated services are absolutely essential, and we need standards to achieve this. For more information on the surveys, please contact info@theprsb.org