The 2022 Care at Home & Housing Support Conference and Exhibition will be held at Radisson Blu in Glasgow on Friday 13 May 2022.
Early bird tickets are available for purchase until Monday 28 March 2022.
Scottish Care members can purchase tickets at an discounted rate of £54. For non-members, the early bird ticket is £100+VAT. So take advantage of the lower price, and book your place before then!
Balhousie Care staff open up about the COVID pandemic in exclusive new research
There is a “moral obligation” to provide more psychological support to care home staff as they continue to live with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That is the conclusion of a research study in which staff from leading care provider Balhousie Care Group share the emotional and physical effects of the pandemic, and their coping mechanisms.
Care and nursing staff who took part in the study, conducted by the University of the Highlands and Islands and Northumbria University, share how they sacrificed their own family lives for the sake of turning up to work every day and looking after their residents. They also tell of how they kept each other’s spirits up and turned to each other for emotional support.
“It’s a war in a lot of ways,” said one respondent. “We have to stick together then keep moving forward.”
The research team also drew comparisons between their findings and stories of the camaraderie that occurs in the military during wartime. Dr Michelle Beattie, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of the Highlands and Islands and Research Lead, said the research team was struck by how Balhousie Care staff supported each other through the toughest times the care sector has ever seen.
“They felt like it was a war against the pandemic. There was a sense of ‘we need to pull together and face this together’. You read about that sense of camaraderie in the military and people deploying to war but not that much in healthcare. None of us had seen that before in any previous work,” said Dr Beattie.
The researchers were “blown away” by the personal sacrifices made by staff, which included moving out of their own homes so that they reduced their chances of passing on the virus to care home residents, said Dr Beattie. “Not seeing your children because you want to protect your residents from COVID. To me that’s a whole other level of self-sacrifice,” she said.
In the words of one respondent who took part in the study: “I had said to myself from Day One, I would never not go and care for my residents. That’s just not me. I wouldn’t put myself before them. I’ve been in this job for 10 years, and I’m not going to let some virus take away what my life is. I’ve put my life into this job.”
Care home managers share the extra stress of supporting their teams in an ongoing crisis, while not revealing their own struggles. Coping mechanisms included tears and laughter in equal measure, the study found. “I found myself sneaking off to the toilet to have a wee cry, just to get the emotions out… I never took work home with me, I just left it there,” said one respondent.
“Honestly you have just got to laugh. It’s a very serious job, taking care of people, but you just need to be able to have a laugh and a sing song and get Alexa on. That’s how I’ve coped,” said another.
Dr Beattie said the poignancy of some of the accounts led researchers to find their own coping mechanisms. The research team formed a buddy system so that after interviews with Balhousie staff a researcher was able to debrief and talk to a colleague for support.
Respondents to the study were brutally honest about the difficulties of being under scrutiny from the public, the media and health inspectors whilst dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19 and staff absences. They told of the “unreasonable and unrealistic” demands on them from inspectors. “We’ve not had COVID and here’s the inspector picking me up because I’ve got version two of a poster instead of version three. It’s just ridiculous,” said one respondent. Another concluded: “Sometimes people are forgetting these are residents’ homes.”
One respondent explained their frustration with the public and media focus on the NHS: “Where everybody flocked, again, to the NHS to support and volunteer and the nurse banks flourished, we were again in the dark going ‘Hello, can somebody come and help us?’”
Since the start of the pandemic, Balhousie Care Group has introduced a new employee assistance programme which offers free counselling and advice, and worked with one local authority to create ‘reflective sessions’ for staff to help with their wellbeing during the pandemic. Homes have also set up private chat groups for staff and private Facebook pages for relatives, to aid communication among staff and between care homes and relatives.
Said one respondent in the study: “Those words of support [on our home’s social media page] have been great, and I know that if there’s anything anybody has a problem with or if I had a problem, then we can open up in our group chat.”
The study concludes that there is “a moral obligation to provide psychological support to care home staff” to avoid distress and psychological health problems. It recommends ‘safe spaces’ for healthcare workers to reflect on their pandemic experiences, a “cultural shift” to acknowledge their “unique and high-quality contribution to care”, and care home inspections that are supportive and “avoid a ‘tick box’ mentality.”
The qualitative mixed methods study took place over four months between January and May 2021. Academics surveyed 52 healthcare workers from Balhousie Care Group’s 26 care homes, conducting follow-up interviews with thirteen.
Lindsay Dingwall, a co-author of the study and Clinical Care Quality Manager at Balhousie Care Group, said: “The commonly used word to describe a hero is ‘to show courage’, so we can safely say that since March 2020 care home staff have earned that description. As emotional and raw as this study was for our respondents and the researchers, it was hugely important to be part of it. For the sake of our employees and residents, and in honour of everyone who has lost a life in the last two years, we wanted to help document not only what care workers have gone through, but also their dedication to their jobs. A massive thank you must go to the respondents who took part.”
Scottish Care comments:
“Anyone reading this research cannot but be moved by the stories of dedicated and sacrificial professionalism and compassion shown by frontline carers and nurses. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about immense challenge to so many thousands of frontline care staff. We have had lots of statistical and academic reports and commentary but the story of frontline carers who were there through thick and thin has rarely been told and this is so valuable.
“However, what is clear from this research is that there has been a distinctive and significant impact upon the mental health and wellbeing of care staff. Witnessing the early deaths of those whom you have cared for over a number of years has left a deep wound for many carers and it is one which is still as raw and real. It is imperative that we develop bespoke and specialist support that appreciates the unique experience of these women and men and the prolonged grief syndrome they are suffering.”
“It is critical that all stakeholders read this report because it could be told a hundred times over up and down Scotland. We have to learn the lessons of disproportionate and unnecessary scrutiny and inspection; of alleged oversight support which has made staff feel devalued and unskilled; of investigations in the name of assurance which has made staff feel culpable; of media commentary which has sought to find blame and scapegoat; and of external governmental intervention, clinical advice and infection, prevention and control (IPC) guidance which has made care at times so challenging and impossible rather than serve to support the skilled professionals in our care homes and to uphold the human rights of residents.”
The full results of the study can be found here: Stress and Coping Experiences of Nurses and Care Workers in a Care Home Setting During the Covid-19 Pandemic (uhi.ac.uk)
More about the findings can be heard in a podcast produced by Balhousie Care Group. Listen here.
For more information on Balhousie Care Group visit www.balhousiecare.co.uk
Scottish Care will be hosting a webinar on Operation Koper on Monday 21 March, 2:00 – 3:00 pm. Staff from the Crown Office including the Senior Lead for this work, Stephen McGowan will deliver an update on Operation Koper. Members will also get the chance to ask any questions in a Q & A session.
Please note that this webinar will be hosted on Microsoft Teams as a meeting rather than our normal Zoom Webinar format.
This session is for Scottish Care members, registration is required, the registration link is available in the Members Area of this website, please contact [email protected] if you have any issues accessing this.
The meeting invite will be sent to those registered a few days before the session.
Scottish Care is delighted to be working with Healthier Working Lives (HWL) programme (funded by the Innovate UK). This programme assesses the challenges and opportunities for the over 50’s care workforce and is led by King’s College London in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh.
The team is acting to tackle a crisis facing care workers and organisations. The adult social care sector is at a tipping point. A recurring set of issues have been rendered more intense by COVID and Brexit regulations. Demoralised experienced professionals are leaving in droves, many employees are chronically underpaid and business models are broken.
The crisis is reflected in unusually high levels of workforce turnover and vacancy rates. Many service provider owners and managers are struggling to maintain care quality levels with limited resources and increasing costs.
Find out more about the programme and how you can contribute here.
The closing date for this year’s Care at Home & Housing Support Awards has been extended to Thursday 4 March 2022, 5:00PM.
The workforce in the Care at Home and Housing Support are often undervalued and unheralded. The Awards are a tremendous way to show how care staff are highly skilled and compassionate individuals, who work tirelessly day and night to support people in their own homes. We are keen to make sure that all the excellent work taking place across the country is recognised and rewarded. So, please take this opportunity to recognise and celebrate the excellence displayed by the workforce, services and clients in the homecare sector by submitting your nominations now.
There are 10 different award categories that you can nominate in:
For the awards ceremony itself, we are hoping to have an in-person ceremony hosted by Pop Idol winner and presenter, Michelle McManus and Scottish Care’s CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill on the evening of Friday 13th May 2022 at Radisson Blu, Glasgow. However, please note that this may be subject to change depending on Government Covid-19 guidelines at the time of the event.
If you are interested in booking an Awards table, please contact [email protected].
Rights Made Real in Care Homes is a project which aims to explore and enhance the realisation of everyday human rights in care homes. To read about the work which took part in Phase 1 of the project please visit Rights Made Real Evidence and Learning.
The Rights Made Real Project Team are delighted to host a launch event on Feb 28th for Phase 2 of this project, this event will see the the Rights Made Real in Care Homes Hub go live. Please see the flyer below for information about the launch and sign up for tickets by clicking on: Launch Event Tickets.
The Launch event is open to everyone; the information about the project shared at the launch may be particularly of interest to:
You are welcome, and encouraged to share information bout the launch far and wide.
If you aren’t able to attend the launch you will be able to read all about the project, and the opportunities open to care homes on the new Rights Made Real website www.myhomelifecharity.org/uk/rightsmadereal – which will also be launched on Feb 28th.
Rights Made Real Phase 2 Launch Flyer (1)
We will be hosting a webinar on ‘Supporting better oral care in care homes: what quality looks like’. Join us on Thursday 24 February on 2pm.
A good practice resource, Supporting Better Oral Care in Care Homes, was launched in autumn 2021 by the Care Inspectorate, in conjunction with the nation oral health improvement programmes Caring for Smiles and Open Wide. This webinar will cover how to use this resource along with information about both oral health improvement programmes and the training / support that can be accessed through them.
The speakers are both Consultants in Dental Public Health in the NHS. Maura Edwards will give an overview of the oral health improvement programmes and details of the new good practice resource, and Morag Muir will be sharing information on practical tips for good oral care and other resources available to support oral health.
Details will be available on the Members Area. Please email [email protected] if you have any issues accessing this.
The Scottish Government is developing Scotland’s first Data Strategy for Health and Social Care. This strategy will be built on the belief that people should have access to and control over their own health and care data– including medical records, test results and care plans.
Data is central to our health and social care systems. Collecting, sharing and analysing data effectively can help to improve the services.
The new data strategy will outline how health and care services can be better integrated and built on people-centred approaches.
Scottish Government want to hear from care home and care at home providers to help shape the development of the data strategy, and it is important that your needs are included at this early stage.
Please join us for a MS Teams call, 2.00-3.30pm on the 16th of February.
You will be asked to respond to questions around –
If you are interested in taking part in this session, please email [email protected] to register your interest and we will send you a Microsoft Teams invite directly.
The 2021 Care Home Conference and Exhibition will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow on Friday 1 April 2022.
Scottish Care members can purchase tickets at an early bird rate of £54 +VAT until Friday 4 March. For non-members, the early bird ticket is £100+VAT. So take advantage of the lower price, and book your place before then!
Please click here to view the programme details for the event and to book your ticket.
This report is yet another piece of statistical analysis into the pandemic and in so far as it goes it is both robust and evidential. It states a reality which we have known about for some time, namely that the population most at risk from Covid-19 are individuals with pre-existing and multiple comorbidities and those who are in the older age population. It is not surprising, therefore, that given a sizable number of those living with advanced dementia and in later age live in our residential and nursing homes that – as has been consistently said – they were a population most at risk of the pandemic and its threat to life. Sadly the lack of prioritisation of our care homes in the early stages of the pandemic was one factor which has led to the deaths reported in this research.
What the research, following a long line of analytical pieces of work, does not show is the human evidence of the impact of managing the pandemic in care homes. Questions remain as to whether or not the early clinical Guidance issued by Scottish Government clinicians, the level of transfer of residents to and from hospitals, the nature of isolation over lengthy periods of time, were, amongst other factors, one which contributed to the high death rates that this report describes. It is regretful that despite numerous requests from Scottish Care that bespoke and targeted independent academic work be undertaken to explore the experience of those with direct knowledge of what was happening in our care homes, especially, staff, residents, and their families, that such work has not to date been forthcoming or prioritised. The raw scientific data offers a partial picture, listening to the stories of those who matter the most would tell us a whole lot more.
One area which would also merit further exploration is the evidence in the report to show that there were higher number of excess deaths of those living with dementia in the community (both on the previous year and five-year average) and a lower number of deaths of individuals with dementia in our hospitals. Was this because those with dementia were being discouraged from or felt unable to go to hospital? Could some of these excess deaths have been prevented with alternative clinical prioritisation both in the community and in hospitals? Was there an impact of the speedy withdrawal of homecare and community supports in the early stage of the pandemic etc?
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