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Content ArticleThis joint manifesto has been produced by the charities Sue Ryder, Marie Curie, Together for Short Lives, National Bereavement Alliance and Hospice UK. Ahead of the next General Election, they are calling upon all political parties and candidates to commit to policies that ensure everyone affected by dying, death and bereavement receives the best possible care and support, both now and in the future. The manifesto calls for the new Government to: Deliver a new funding solution for hospices and palliative and end of life care to end the postcode lottery in access Introduce a national delivery plan for palliative and end of life are in every nation to support delivery of local services Guarantee that palliative and end of life care services meet each individual’s needs, including those of people dying at home Act to ensure that nobody dies in poverty and tackle inequalities in palliative and end of life care Improve support for families and carers of people with a terminal illness
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Content ArticleAllergic reactions vary in severity. People with food allergy tend to have reactions which affect the skin or gut, but around one third of reactions involve the breathing: these more serious allergic reactions are known as anaphylaxis. Very rarely, anaphylaxis can be severe and therefore life-threatening. This leaflet created by Allergy UK and Anaphylaxis UK explains how you can reduce the risk of this happening. Anaphylaxis is unpredictable and can occur in people who have never had this type of reaction before, but most people will recover fully.
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Content Article
Constipation can be a life–threatening issue for people with a learning disability who are at heightened risk from complications if it is left untreated. This campaign has been developed by NHS England to support people with a learning disability, their carers and people who work in primary care to recognise the signs of constipation. Resources have been co–created with input from the Down’s Syndrome Association, Mencap and Pathways Associates to ensure that they are fit for purpose. The resources aim to: Drive awareness of the seriousness of constipation Help people recognise the signs of constipation at an early stage Empower people to take action and ensure that people with a learning disability experiencing constipation get the right health support straight away Raise awareness of the steps which can be taken to prevent constipation. -
Content ArticleThis guide is intended for people caring for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia, to help facilitate conversations that can help to make health care decisions as the need arises. It has been produced as part of the Conversation Project, a public engagement initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The Project’s goal is to help everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life, so those wishes can be understood and respected.
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Content ArticleReflecting on the impact of restrictions placed on families and visitors to hospitals and care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, this article, published in the BMJ, argues that families must be recognised and valued as partners in patient care.
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Content Article
Melanie Whitfield, Associate Director of Patient Safety at Kingston NHS Foundation Trust, and Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, recently ran a workshop for Patient Safety Partners (PSPs) at the Kingston Trust. Here is a summary of the workshop. -
EventThis joint conference hosted by The Mental Health – Time for Action Foundation and Safely Held Spaces is aimed at stimulating discussion and promoting change in the way mental health services view the role of the family in the therapeutic process. Going beyond the “carer-patient” model, the conference brings into focus the broader perspective that mental health is not just an individual concern but involves the whole family system. Recognising the importance of the family system’s wellbeing promotes a more holistic approach to mental health. Our objective is to foster an environment for learning and discussion about the latest evidence-based practices across the NHS and third sector organisations. The conference will encompass a series of talks, workshops, and interactive panel discussions. You will have the opportunity to engage with a network of families experiencing mental distress, paving the way for collaborative efforts.
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Content ArticleThe Safe Care at Home Review is an important reminder that people with care and support needs may experience abuse and neglect, sometimes under the guise of ‘care’. Older people, or people with disabilities, may be particularly vulnerable to harm because of their dependence on others and the complexity of their care needs. They might rely on other people for physical, mental or financial support, and may face difficulties recognising or reporting harm. The review draws on a range of evidence, including the Home Office funded Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, which has highlighted that one in six domestic homicides involved people who were cared for by, or caring for, the suspect.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Sophie Jarvis, NIHR Public Partnerships Manager, Una Rennard, a public contributor, and Bryher Bowness, a PhD Student at King’s College London, highlight the role of people who care for friends and family in health and social care research, and why they should be involved.
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Content ArticleUnpaid carers provide significant levels of support to family or friends–equivalent to four million paid care workers. Carers often need support with their own health and wellbeing, but they are not always able to access this. Researchers from The King's Fund interviewed commissioners and providers of support to unpaid carers, ran focus groups with unpaid carers in four areas of England, spoke to national stakeholders and reviewed existing literature and national data sets, in order to understand the current picture of local support available for unpaid carers in England.
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Content ArticleThis article looks at the experience of Tammy Dobbs, who has cerebral palsy and requires extensive support from home carers to carry out daily tasks. In 2016, Tammy's care needs were reassessed by the state of Arkansas where she lives, and the hours of support she was eligible to receive were cut in half. The change in eligibility was due to a new state-approved algorithm that had calculated her support needs in a new way, in spite of the fact that there was no change to her level of need. The situation caused Tammy much distress and resulted in drastic life changes. The article highlights the issues associated with the use of algorithms to determine need and allocate resources in health and social care. It also raises questions about what transparency means in an automated age and highlights concerns about people’s ability to contest decisions made by machines.
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Content ArticleCare home residents are particularly vulnerable to patient safety incidents, due to higher likelihood of frailty, multimorbidity and cognitive decline. However, despite residents and their carers wanting to be involved in safety initiatives, there are few mechanisms for them to contribute and make meaningful safety improvements to practice. This study aimed to develop a measure of contributory factors to safety incidents in care homes to be completed by residents and/or their unpaid carers.
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Content ArticleUnpaid carers play a substantial and vital role in meeting social care needs. The care they provide has enormous value, both for the people they care for and for wider society. Many carers experience great satisfaction from their role, and through the help and support they provide to friends and family members they may also reduce the costs of formal social care provision. At the same time, caring responsibilities can come at a high personal and financial cost, despite the 2014 Care Act giving carers the right to receive support. 1 in 5 carers report feeling socially isolated and 4 in 10 report financial difficulties because of their caring role. This report by The Health Foundation aims to explore national data on the number of unpaid carers and trends over time, as well as which groups are more likely to have caring responsibilities and who they provide care for. It gives an overview of the types of support available to carers, and what we know–and don’t know–about how many carers are accessing support.
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News Article
Covid: Staff propped up care homes without extra pay, says report
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Many care home staff worked extra hours without extra pay to prop up the system during the pandemic, a study suggests. Public money helped stabilise UK care homes during the first wave of Covid-19 but it was withdrawn too soon and not focused on staff, says the research, led by Warwick Business School. The researchers studied the accounts of more than 4,000 UK care home companies, from just before the pandemic and during the first year of the health crisis. They found nearly two thirds (60%) of care homes were already financially fragile as the pandemic took hold. The report concludes: "The decision by government to end financial support for care home companies after the peak of the pandemic had passed has likely contributed to the current financial and operational difficulties experienced by the sector." It states the financial plight of many staff and the immense pressure they were under "means it is not surprising the care home sector has struggled to both recruit and retain staff once lockdown restrictions were removed and the wider economy re-opened". Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 April 2023 -
News Article
Social care workforce funding halved for England, government confirms
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Funding promised to develop the social care workforce in England has been halved, the government has confirmed. In 2021 the government pledged "at least" £500 million for reforms, to be spent on training places and technology over three years. But that figure is now £250 million, according to the Department of Health. A coalition of charities said this cut is "just the latest in a long series of disappointments" over social care. The government said its reforms would give care "the status it deserves" but some organisations in the sector say they fall short of what is needed. Caroline Abrahams, co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance - which represents more than 70 charities - and charity director of Age UK, said the measures "aren't remotely enough to transform social care". Millions of older and disabled people and their carers "needed something far bigger, bolder and more genuinely strategic to give them hope for the future", she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 April 2023 -
Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Lesley talks to us about how personal stories enrich our understanding of data, drive real quality improvement and remind us that healthcare is all about people. She also explains how her own personal experience drives her work to improve healthcare experiences for patients and their families. -
Content ArticleHospital at Home is a short-term, targeted intervention that provides a level of acute hospital care in an individual’s own home, or homely setting that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital. In mid-2020, the ihub within Healthcare Improvement Scotland began working with a number of NHS boards and health and social care partnerships to support the implementation of Hospital at Home services across Scotland. This toolkit was created as part of that work, providing a range of tools and resources to support areas to implement and expand Hospital at Home services.
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Content ArticleA repository of resources aimed at patients and carers which have been co-produced by the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme (FFFAP) patient and carer panel.
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Content Article
The King's Fund: Social care 360 (2 March 2023)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Social care
The King's Fund has launched the latest edition of their annual Social Care 360 report analysing the 12 key trends in adult social care in England. The year’s report paints a picture of a worsening crisis in adult social care with more requests for publicly funded social care in England than ever before, while the number of people receiving it continues to fall. -
Content ArticleMore and more people are dying at home, rather than in a hospital or hospice. With this trend set to continue, how can commissioners ensure that end-of-life care reflects this and meets the needs of people approaching the end of their lives and their loved ones? This new report from the King's Fund explores what we know about commissioning end-of-life care, the inequalities experienced by particular groups, and how NHS and social care commissioners in England are measuring and assuring the quality of care people receive. Drawing on interviews with commissioners, stakeholders and experts in end-of-life care, as well as recently bereaved carers and family members, this report offers reflections and recommendations for those wanting to improve end-of-life care for those dying at home.
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News Article
England’s worsening care shortages leave older people struggling
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hundreds of thousands of older people in England are having to endure chronic pain, anxiety and unmet support needs owing to the worsening shortage of social care staff and care home beds. Age UK has said older people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart failure are increasingly struggling with living in their own homes because of a lack of help with everyday tasks such as getting out of bed, dressing and eating. The decline in the amount of support and care provided to older people is piling pressure on families and carers and leaving the NHS in constant crisis mode, contributing heavily to ambulance queues outside A&E departments, the charity said in a new report It warned that there would be a repeat of the NHS crisis this winter – in which rising numbers of elderly people have been unnecessarily stuck in hospital because of an acute lack of social care – without a shift to preventing unnecessary admissions. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2023 -
Content Article
Age UK: Fixing the Foundations (17 February 2023)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Older people
A new in-depth report from the Charity Age UK, ‘Fixing the Foundations’, reveals how our under-funded and overstretched NHS and social care system is struggling and sometimes failing to cope with the needs of older people. The report provides a first-hand account of older people’s difficulties in getting the good, joined up health and social care they need to manage at home, leaving them at risk of crisis which often results in being admitted to hospital. Yet the evidence is clear that with the right care at the right time many of these admissions could have been avoided. The report also includes perspectives from professionals and unpaid carers. It also shows how living with multiple long-term health conditions, as a significant proportion of older people do, including more than two-thirds of those aged over 85, makes it especially hard to navigate health services which are still usually organised around individual illnesses and diseases. Meanwhile social care was often inadequate or absent in these older people’s lives. Age UK estimates that astonishingly, over 1.6 million older people have some level of fundamental care and support need, such as help to get dressed, washed or getting out of bed, that is not being fully addressed. -
Content ArticleProviding an overview of the work of the Group and its key findings, the Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants presents a suite of 16 recommendations spanning the areas of areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation.
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News Article
Care providers ask for doubled fees to care for people discharged from hospitals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Care providers are demanding double the usual fees to look after thousands of people who need to be discharged from hospitals to ease the crisis in the NHS. Care England, which represents the largest private care home providers, said on Sunday it wanted the government to pay them £1,500 a week per person, citing the need to pay care workers more and hire rehabilitation specialists so people languishing in hospital can eventually be sent home. The rate is about double what most local authorities currently pay for care home beds, an amount Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, described as “inadequate”. The demand comes as the health secretary, Steve Barclay promised “urgent action” with up to £250m in new funding for the NHS to buy care beds to clear wards of medically fit patients. The money will be used to buy beds in care homes, hospices and hotels where people are looked after by homecare providers, as well as pay for hospital upgrades. Stays will be no longer than four weeks until the end of March. The use of hotels as care homes began during the pandemic and has been controversial, with reports of problems with hygiene and supplies of specialist equipment. The charity Age UK last week criticised their renewed use as “not an appropriate place to provide high-quality care for older people in need of support to recuperate after a spell in hospital”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 January 2023 -
News Article
Council providing three-minute care visits to vulnerable, finds ombudsman
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Care workers are taking as little as three minutes to help vulnerable people in their own homes, the social care ombudsman has found, after discovering a council was allocating extremely short visits to hundreds of people. Amid chronic staff shortages and rising unmet care needs nationwide, a homecare worker commissioned by Warrington borough council sometimes stayed for just three minutes, despite the family paying for the full visit. The council was found to have allocated 15-minute care calls to more than 300 people in the region, despite national guidance stressing these were “not usually appropriate”. The Homecare Association, which represents care providers, said the number of short calls being commissioned was increasing more widely and said “15-minute visits are inappropriately short”, result in inadequate care and are stressful for workers placed under “unfair pressure”. The case that triggered the investigation involved a woman with dementia who was paying the full costs of her care under a plan devised by the council. In 15 minutes two agency care workers were expected to wake her, prepare a meal and a drink, ensure she ate and drank, administer her medication, change her incontinence pad, administer any personal care and tidy the kitchen. Electronic monitoring showed they regularly stayed less than 15 minutes and the ombudsman said it was probable her care needs were not met and her care was not dignified. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 January 2023
