Learning Disability Week, in common with many awareness raising events this year, focuses on post-pandemic reconnection. People with learning disabilities and those who support them continue to process the difficulties of the last two years and reacquaint themselves with society.
Tracey thought her fiancé was struggling with his father’s death but realised later he was experiencing psychosis. She describes how caring for him has brought them even closer together. Marking Carers Week, this wonderful blog, brought to us by Rethink Mental Illness, reminds us that, while unpaid carers are doing an amazing job supporting loved ones, they need support and understanding too.
Carers Week has always been about increasing visibility and support for those who give their time, energy and commitment to care for family, friends and loved ones. Which is why, as we emerge from the privations of the pandemic, this year’s theme of making carers more ‘visible, valued and supported’ has never been more relevant.
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.