As part of Volunteering Day in Care Home Week 2017, we thought it might be helpful to highlight a resource which can support care homes to understand the value of volunteers and to help them to develop volunteering opportunities in their services.  Whilst this is an English-based piece of work, its messages and learning resonate more widely:

NCVO – Volunteering in Care Homes 

Investing in Volunteers (IiV) and Investing in Volunteer for Employers are the UK’s quality standards for organisations within all sectors who have an interest in volunteer participation.

Through these quality frameworks, organisations will be given the opportunity to explore their current volunteer programme against national best practice. This will create an organisation’s volunteer baseline from which to develop and explore new ways to deliver their volunteer programmes and volunteer participation.

Recent participants within the learning and development programme have been: Church of Scotland, Children’s Hearing Scotland, Police Scotland, a number of Health Boards, Heath Improvement Services, The Scottish Parliament, Scottish Drugs Forum, Children’s Hospice Scotland and Scotrail.

For more information contact Adrian Murtagh at Volunteer Scotland – [email protected] or 01786 479593

 

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Care Home week blog by George Thomson, CEO, Volunteer Scotland

Its national Care Home Week and this got me thinking about volunteering and care homes.

Every care home is a community and where there’s a community you’ll find volunteers! Individuals and groups who will be making a contribution through song, dance, bingo, befriending, and a thousand other activities that brings some joy and well being to the care home community.

The culture of a care home will determine how much volunteers are welcomed into the home, the range of activities being undertaken and critically, whether residents are also volunteer participants. Such as helping out in the garden kitchen, in any events, in social activities and projects.

Volunteering is good for you, and it makes a positive difference for others. Unfortunately we often work to a scarcity way of thinking. It’s harder to get folk to volunteer. You need to have special skills, and that there are too many regulations to make it worthwhile. Yes, there are some roles that are difficult to fill, however, if you view volunteering much more about relationship building then the world your oyster.

So for Care Home Week ask yourself the question; “where does volunteering fit into our community?”

My guess is that there will not be any sphere of care that does not involve people doing things on a voluntary basis.

A few years back we ran a focus group of 7 school leavers all of whom were unemployed and without any structure. We explored whether volunteering was of  interest. I’ll never forget the facilitator asking the question if they would be interested in radio broadcasting and there was no response. She then asked whether hospital radio was an option and the room came alight with a positive response. On probing why this was the case, these vulnerable young people related to the vulnerability of people in hospital. They cared. They empathised. They wanted to help. These young folk stand for the population at large. Motivated by making a meaningful difference, building relationships, and enjoying the human connections.

Care Home week offers a chance to open up our ways of thinking to new ways of engaging our natural willingness to care.

 

George Thomson
CEO, Volunteer Scotland

http://www.volunteerscotland.net/ 

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Whilst we highlighted the brilliant ‘Come On In’ resource yesterday, today is Friendship and Care Home Open Day as part of Care Home Week 2017.  On a day where we are encouraging people to build friendships with people living in care homes, there is no better time to highlight this resource again!

This blog from Heather Edwards, Dementia Consultant with the Care Inspectorate explains a bit more about the resource and how it is being used…

The pocket guide “Come on In” is a great example of how the views and thoughts of a motivated and interested group of folk can be brought together into something that can provide practical hints and tips for all families and friends. The beauty of this work is that it came from the heart of the care home, in this case Campbell Snowden in Bridge of Weir to meet a need that the staff and families had identified. Staff had noticed that some family members were finding visiting more difficult especially as the person they were visiting was changing, conversations were perhaps not as easy and at times emotions could be running high. The home had already taken steps to work with two daughters of residents and involve them in sessions to enhance their understanding of dementia, and that had improved their understanding of what their mothers were experiencing and resulted in a different way of being together.

“Come on In” is about maintaining relationships especially when a loved one has moved into a care home, keeping those connections to friends and the community is vital for wellbeing. “Come on In” didn’t happen overnight, there were many discussions, rewrites and sharing of the drafts with other care homes and inspection staff. Marjorie Bain the Inspector for Campbell Snowden was involved at each step of the resource’s creation. We were keen to develop something that would give some first-hand hints and tips that can make keeping connected a valuable and joyful experience rather than an obligation.

The working group who developed “Come on In” collaborated well and although the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Care were involved in this the driving force came from the home staff and the residents and families at Campbell Snowden. We were fortunate that the Life Changes Trust recognised the importance of the resource and agreed to fund the publication. The resource is available directly from the Care Inspectorate as well as from the Scottish Care Integration Leads who have been sharing it across the country.

The response to “Come On In” has been really encouraging and it have been shared far and wide, with representatives from Scotland taking the resource to Japan while attending Alzheimer International conference. Closer to home we received one from a care service in Shetland:

“Thank you so much for the “Come On In” resource. We have had it displayed in the care centre and I can safely say out of all the resources we make available this one has gone the quickest, I think it’s a real demonstration of its relevance to care centres and especially to families and carers.”

A selection of video clips can be found here:
http://hub.careinspectorate.com/improvement/spotlight-on-dementia/come-on-in/

Please contact the Care Inspectorate if you would like copies of “Come on In” sent out to you.

 

Heather Edwards

Dementia Consultant, Care Inspectorate

 

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To mark Care Home Week in Scotland, Hospice UK has published a new briefing paper, which describes the work Scottish hospices do with care homes to widen access to quality end of life care and makes a number of recommendations for expanding these partnerships.

Partnerships between Scottish hospices and care homes improve people’s end of life experiences and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions but these partnerships face barriers which prevent them from reaching more people, according to new research by Hospice UK.

Around 20 per cent of Scots who need palliative care do not get it every year. The Scottish Government has said that by 2021, everyone who needs palliative care should have access to it and it has committed to doubling palliative care in the community. However, to achieve that, care homes must be properly supported to deliver palliative and end of life care the charity argues.

Over 37,000 Scots live in care homes and a fifth of people who die, die in care homes. In response to rising palliative care needs in care homes, national hospice care charity Hospice UK surveyed Scottish hospices and found that 85% provided some form of support to care homes, with many keen to do more.

However, there are a number of barriers facing hospice-care home partnerships including low awareness of their benefits, care home staffing challenges, insufficient data and short-term funding models.

Hospices engage with care homes to provide support and share their knowledge and skills through two main ways. Through individual patient referrals to hospice care for people living in care homes, led mainly by Community Nurse Specialists.

Also through a “whole-home” approach where a group of, or potentially all, care home residents can benefit directly through hospices providing education or training to support care home staff.

Hospice UK’s recommendations include:

• Increasing awareness of the benefits of hospice-care home partnerships to reduce inequalities in access to expert end of life care in care homes. Especially with Health and Social Care Partnerships working more closely with hospices and care homes
• Testing and evaluating interventions to build evidence on what works, improving practice and sharing experience
• Sustaining hospice care knowledge in care homes through innovative approaches
• Ensuring funding is sustainable and responsive to local need with people at the centre

Eilidh Macdonald, Policy and Advocacy Manager Scotland at Hospice UK, said:

“Too many people in Scotland don’t get the care they need at the end of life. Scotland’s hospices are helping change that by successfully sharing their expertise to support care in care homes.

“But more must be done to extend access to care to more people. We urge Scotland’s new Health and Social Care Partnerships to tackle the barriers that hospice-care home partnerships face to help ensure that many more people have better access to high quality care in the future.”

Dr Donald Macaskill, CEO of Scottish Care added:

“Scottish Care is pleased to see the publication of this report. It highlights the importance of well resourced hospice care-home partnerships. Every individual deserves the opportunity to spend their last few days supported in a place they have chosen and by a people who value them as individuals, mould their caring to their character, and which puts them at the centre of attention. Experiencing a good death is a human right and doesn’t happen by accident but by adequately planning, resourcing, respecting and shaping that care. The challenges of this report need to be heard.”

• Hospices in Scotland support around 20,000 people a year.
• Hospice UK’s research highlights that low awareness of the contribution of Scotland’s hospices acts as a barrier to more joint working. While there are examples that hospice-led care in care homes makes a positive difference, evidence is lacking on the full impact on outcomes for patients and families.
• Other barriers include: high staff turnover in care homes which means that hospice-led interventions in care homes that had led to improvements are not always sustained over time. In addition, funding for hospice-care home partnerships comes through a variety of channels but there is a need for better, more reliable sources of income for these partnerships to support their future growth.

The briefing paper can be accessed here.

• Hospice UK is the national charity for hospice care and the only membership body for organisations providing hospice care.  They support and champion the work of more than 200 of these organisations across the UK.
• Hospices, and other organisations which provide hospice care, offer vital care for people with terminal or life-limiting conditions and also support their families and carers.
• For further information about hospice care visit hospiceuk.org or follow @hospiceukPA on Twitter
• Get all the latest news from the hospice and palliative care sector, as well as patient stories, on ehospice UK at: ehospice.com/uk This service is managed by Hospice UK. You can also follow ehospice news on Twitter at @ehospicenews

 

‘Directed by North Merchiston’ – five extraordinary films with care home residents

As part of Arts & Engagement day (Tuesday 13 June) in Care Home Week 2017, Scottish Care had the opportunity to show the ‘Directed by North Merchiston’ films at the Scottish Social Services Expo in Crieff.

Scottish Care’s Human Rights Project Lead, Carlyn Miller, took colleagues from across the health and social care sector through three of the beautiful films and explained why it is so important that we value older people and view ageing as something to be celebrated.

Carlyn also explained why the films help to articulate the importance of a human rights-based approach to care and support of older people.  More information about Scottish Care’s human rights work, including our Care Home Convention, can be found here.

The project was the brainchild of Duncan Cowles, a BAFTA Scotland Award winning documentary filmmaker. He said:
“One of the biggest issues for older generations today is loneliness. I wanted to give the residents of North Merchiston Care Home a voice. So, instead of me coming in with my camera and making films about the people living there, I wanted the residents to think of themselves as the filmmakers and develop the stories they’d personally like to tell.”

The project was commissioned by Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival, and was supported by Scottish Care.

The films can be viewed here.

For more information about the films, contact Duncan Cowles –

www.duncancowles.com 

[email protected]

If you’ve watched the films and want to share your feedback, tweet using the hashtag #carehomeweek17