Public health
Visits from family and loved one’s are an important part of life when living in care settings. During the pandemic the challenges faced by both families and those living in care facilities were huge. We want to make sure, whenever …
When PHE's Dr. Éamonn O'Moore was seeing patients, he knew how crucial it was for all who work directly with vulnerable people to make sure they had a flu jab every year. He felt it was his professional responsibility to protect himself, his colleagues, and those in his care. A new winter vaccination campaign has launched to encourage all health and care staff to get their flu and covid-booster jabs sorted.
After so many months of challenge, set against a nonetheless undimmed determination to endure, the care sector has received some much needed good news.
Coming quickly after the emotional boost generated by the resumption of care home visits, supported by testing, the news that Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine has been authorised by the MHRA - and care home staff are among the first priority groups to get it - means we can look ahead to the prospect of a safer, healthier, post-pandemic future.
Reena Barai's pharmacy, SG Barai, based in Sutton, Surrey, has for the last few years been offering a flu vaccination service to the public, care homes and their staff. This year, they recognised quite early they were going to have to plan and co-ordinate how they provided their usual service in the midst of a viral pandemic.
After months and months of restrictions, continued uncertainty around work, education and our general health, and the shared anxiety about the future course of this pandemic, we are now in the unusual position of receiving some cautiously optimistic news. Michelle Dyson, our Director General for Social Care, considers what the news of potentially effective COVID-19 vaccines means for the care sector - and the country as a whole.
Self Care Week has been organised annually by the Self Care Forum since 2011. Its aims are to raise awareness of and embed support for self care across communities, families and generations. This year’s theme is ‘Live self care for life.’
As the UK’s coronavirus lockdown continues to cautiously ease, it remains just as important to protect ourselves and others from the risk of infection. Helen Donovan, RCN and Chair of the Self Care Forum and Dr Knut Schroeder, GP and CE of the Self Care Forum explain why they believe self care should lie at the heart of society's response to the pandemic.
Right now, in the heart of a coronavirus pandemic, we are all feeling vulnerable. But even now, when we all need protection, people receiving social care services are often seen as being at additional risk. SCIE's Hugh Constant returns with a timely blog considering the challenges of maintaining familiar safeguarding processes in an unfamiliar situation.
‘This is community’. These were the comforting words from Arthur Rank Hospice Charity's Medical Director at the end of a recent daily video call as colleagues began a week, the like of which none of them could have imagined even a month ago. CEO Sharon Allen reflects on the huge changes she and her teams have experienced and the positive team spirit that will see them through.
The Royal College of General Practitioners’ Active Practice Charter is the perfect initiative for GPs and their teams to get involved in Self Care Week. It’s seven days of awareness raising organised by the Self Care Forum and taking place 18 – 24 November 2019. The theme is long term and transformative: “Think self care for life”.