Care and support
Being an unpaid carer during a global pandemic takes its toll, as does its aftermath. The impact is not just physical and emotional, it’s financial too. From speaking with her networks of unpaid carers, Fatima Khan-Shah knows these issues are front and centre of their minds during this year’s Carers Week.
Beth Britton, one of three consultants on MacIntyre’s Dying to Talk Project, explains how this project is aiming to open up conversations about death and dying for people with learning disabilities.
In 2018, the Social Care Institute for Excellence was part of a Department of Health and Social Care project looking at how people with learning disabilities, autism or mental health needs - and their families - can be in control of decisions about their own future. It's time to take that learning further.
For pretty much every major disease or human condition, there is a social care dimension. For many reasons, some of them cultural and institutional, this vital thread in the wider web of health and care is frequently lost, as attention tends to be focused on the more clinical aspects of an innovation or strategy. Dementia care is no different.
Today is International Nurses Day and, while many outside the caring professions tend to think of nursing in a purely clinical context, those working in or with the adult social care sector know it is so much broader in scope, complexity and provision.
"The coronavirus pandemic has brought infection prevention and control (IPC) into sharp focus" says Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy, in her latest blog, marking the recent publication of updated IPC guidance and resources.
One of the reasons, if not the main inspiration, Deborah Sturdy accepted the post of Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care had been her desire to honour, support and encourage this country's amazing care profession through some very challenging times. Read her latest blog, marking a day of reflection and remembrance for social care.
If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s the fundamental truth that collective action, free of self-interest, prejudice or judgement, can achieve amazing things. International Women’s Day has chosen ‘break the bias’ as this year’s theme. I believe we can all draw strength from its ideal in these worrying times.
Family, friends, and external carers are integral to care home residents’ wellbeing and safety. The relationships they have with their loved ones underpin who they are and remain just as important, if not more so, when people move into a residential service.
"‘Joining up care for people, places and populations’ is not just the title of the Government’s Integration White Paper, but an aspiration for us all" says Paul Najsarek of Solace, the membership network for public sector and local government professionals. He believes local expertise can deliver local solutions, as he explains in his debut blog for this site...
