Looking after others often takes its toll on unpaid carers and professional care givers. Taking care of ourselves can sometimes feel like the thing we never get around to doing.
Attending to our own mental health and wellbeing is important. If we are depleted and exhausted, we cannot give our best... at home or at work.
This week, the Department of Health and Social Care published a new PPE (personal protective equipment) strategy, which sets out how PPE will be delivered to the health and social care frontline until the end of March 2021. This is a good opportunity to firstly thank the health and care workforce for everything they do - and have done - during the exceptional circumstances we all find ourselves in.
Professional Care Workers’ Week (1-4 September) happens every year. Although in its relative infancy, the events of the last few months have made these dedicated days of awareness raising more vital than ever. Karolina Gerlich, Executive Director of the Care Workers' Charity explains why she wants to see the care and support sector adopt, support, and promote the week’s themes, values and aspirations.
One of the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic has been how to deal with the massive amounts of information and guidance being produced by the government and across the whole social care sector. At the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), their approach has been to reach out and engage the social care sector to find out what they need in terms of good practice guidance and support.
NHS staff are described, rightly, as members of the country’s frontline defence against coronavirus. That frontline is populated by another group of equally dedicated men and women: care workers. Paul Jenkins, Covid -19 Senior Briefing Officer here at the Department of Health and Social Care, explains the support provided to date and signposts services available to keep them well in mind and body.
Since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, much of the world's shared anxiety and worry has focused on how, when and where the virus is transmitted. This worry has been no less acute in our country's care homes. Jeremy Richardson, Chief Executive of Four Seasons Health Care, explains why his business is one of the many care home providers participating in a new research study to determine how outbreaks occur in residential care settings - and could be prevented.
The recent announcement confirming the routine and regular weekly testing of care home staff for covid-19 infections is hugely welcome and represents another step up in the fight against the virus within care homes. The National Care Forum's Executive Director Vic Rayner explains why expanding the testing programme in this way is so essential.
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.
Samantha Goncalves is 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.
Two new surveys will gather information on how people using social care services can benefit from a more connected system, where their needs and values can be shared and understood by all.
In our second of two blogs previewing Co-production Week (6-10 July), Danie Woodbridge, Co-production Lead at Oxfordshire County Council, echoes the themes and reflections of SCIE's CEO Kathryn Smith. Co-production has been affected by covid-19 but that doesn't mean it's stopped. Conversations and collaborations continue to flourish online, as she explains.
The last three months have been the most challenging times faced by social care for many years, says Kathryn Smith, Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE),
However, this period has not been without some positives. SCIE regularly survey people working in social care or in receipt of care to ask them what is important and what is working well. Here, in the first of two blogs marking Co-production Week (6-10 July), she highlights some of the feedback helping to shape services for the better.