To date there has been progress in fulfilling the aims of the 2015 Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care but a lot less focus has been placed upon bereavement support since Shaping Bereavement Care: a framework for action, 2011 was published.   

 

We know that there are real challenges facing people in dealing with bereavement and in finding the support that enables them as individuals, family members, workers and citizens to continue to live well and contribute to their communities. Scottish Care in its own research, not least The Trees that bend in the wind and the workforce groups which we have established on palliative and end of life care, knows that there is often a profoundly negative impact on staff wellbeing when bereavement is not adequately recognised and dealt with.  

 

A recent report by Sue Ryder and Hospice UK Bereavement Support in Scotland identified a huge gap in the provision of bereavement support within Scotland. Following a national survey, they stated that: 

 

‘nearly one third (31 per cent) of respondents say they needed additional support beyond family and friends to manage their bereavement. But:  

• Only 6 per cent of all respondents accessed bereavement support. 

• A further quarter (23 per cent) of respondents would have liked support but  

couldn’t access it because: they didn’t know how (12 per cent); felt uncomfortable asking for it (8 per cent); or couldn’t get the type of support they wanted (3 per cent).’ 

 

They further argued that: 

 

‘Based on the estimate that around 230,000 people in Scotland are bereaved each year, an estimated 53,000 people could be missing out on support that would help them cope with bereavement.’ 

 

Anyone working in a care home will recognise that dealing with frequent loss especially of those whom staff have developed and nurtured relationships with over a period of time, will inevitably impact upon the health and wellbeing of individuals. We recognise that after terms and conditions, one of the primary reasons for individuals leaving the care sector, is the struggle to cope with the emotional impact of caring, including bereavement when caring relationships end. 

 

Given the growing evidence of the negative impact of bereavement, and not solely in care and health sectors, and given the changes that have happened since the Shaping Bereavement Care report a number of individuals felt that this is an appropriate time to develop a new Bereavement Charter that addresses and flexes to the evolving and varied process of bereavement in Scotland. Additionally, such a Charter has to recognise and address some of the variant factors around workforce attrition levels and acknowledge the impact of failings around bereavement on loneliness and social isolation, mental and physical health, financial and practical considerations, feelings and grief. 

 

Pupils from Crookfur Primary School have been visiting the home to introduce residents to virtual reality, allowing them to see beautiful landscapes, wildlife and historical monuments from the surroundings of the care home.

The exciting initiative was set up by the home’s Activity’s Coordinator after a member of the team mentioned they had purchased a VR headset for playing computer games, and it would be an excellent addition to the busy schedule of activity for residents.

This led the home’s activities coordinator to approach Crookfur Primary to establish a programme sharing the pupils’ VR equipment and skills with the home’s residents while giving them the chance to socialise with the young people

The weekly visits, which see five and six-year old P2 students spending the morning helping the elderly tech-wizards to use VR headsets, have been a hit with residents and pupils alike.

Many participants have found that the immersive technology takes them back to their youth.

 

Hannah, aged 88, said:

“I was looking at a landscape in the countryside. It reminded me of home. I felt as though I was back in the good old days, running through the fields.”

 

Ramsey, aged 95, said:

“I could see a beautiful rose garden in one of them and the other one I was looking at penguins playing in the snow. I loved seeing these things. It reminded me of being at Edinburgh zoo with my family, where we would always go and see the penguins.”

 

Annmarie Porter, manager at Renaissance Care’s Whitecraigs Care Home, said:

“Our residents absolutely love using the VR headsets, it’s become a really popular highlight of the week. They’re able to learn about new technology while being  immersed in sights they wouldn’t usually be able to see.

“It brings back memories of their younger days, and it helps them to tell the pupils about their lives before they came to the home. It’s also really important for young people to spend time with the elderly. They can teach them new skills and and form lasting friendships that our residents look forward to each week.”

 

Huge thanks to Renaissance Care for sharing is fantastic example of technology being used to provide residents with new experiences and enhance their wellbeing.  You can read more of their good news stories at https://www.renaissance-care.co.uk/news/

Renaissance Care was founded in 2004 by executive chairman Robert Kilgour. It operates 14 care homes across Scotland, with over 1000 staff and close to 700 beds. Whitecraigs Care Home is located in Thornliebank and has over 50 beds.

 

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Last week’s issue of the technology magazine, Computer Weekly, carried a lead story about how AI may be a solution to the social care crisis but that there were legal considerations. 

Since Scottish Care published our TechRights report in 2018 on the need to establish clear human rights and ethical frameworks for the use of technology and digital in older people’s care and support, there has been a growing discussion and awareness of the centrality of these issues. 

 

There is undeniably immense potential in the use of AI and robotics in care homes. In the midst of what is often described as a crisis over workforce recruitment and retention in Scotland as well as across the United Kingdom– with 9 out of 10 providers struggling to fill jobs, and nearly a quarter of care home staff leaving their roles each year, it is understandable that many might view technology and data as some sort of salvation and panacea. 

 

Our TechRights report last year mentioned the collaboration between the University of Bedfordshire and Advinia Health Care in a £2.5m European Union (EU)-funded trial using humanoid companions in care homes. The 4ft tall robot, known as Pepper, was designed by Softbank Robotics in Japan and is intended to interact with residents.  

 

‘Over time, the robot learns residents’ favourite music, videos and games. It can hold a conversation and, using facial recognition software, can identify whether a person is interested in a topic or change it – adapting to the needs of the resident. 

And if the robot companions can successfully recognise a person in distress, they will be able to alert a care worker.’ 

 

On one level there is a clear benefit between such uses of AI, smart technology in individual homes and the use of virtual reality aids and so on. 

 

In a not unrelated story last week we have learnt that Amazon is partnering with the NHS in England and Wales to stream the health service's advice already available online through Alexa but using voice. But what on the surface might appear to be positive  progress has not been received without concern and alarm in some quarters.  

 

Because at the same time as these stories of innovation are gaining prominence so too are stories which are calling into question issues of privacy and data control.  

 

Facebook is facing an unprecedented fine of nearly £5 billion pounds for breaches in data privacy; there are concerns that home based smart devices are recording and listening into conversations, and there is a growing cynicism around the control of personal data by what are essentially sales organisations like Google and Amazon.  

 

Scottish Care is convinced that the progress and potential of technology and robotics in care homes and elsewhere will not be maximised unless we increase public confidence and assure citizens about the fundamental protection of their rights. 

 

To that end, with other stakeholders, we have been working on a Human Rights Charter for Technology and Digital in older people’s care and support. This Charter seeks to not only continue the conversation but ensure that from design, development through to implementation and use that technologies seek to serve and enhance the rights and dignity of older individuals, especially in care home environments.  

 

We will be launching the Charter at our TechCare2 event in Glasgow on 23rd August. This event brings together in workshop and discussion format designers, policy specialists, practitioners and technologists. Come and join us at the event and share with others both the potential and the challenges of technology and digital the care and support which care homes deliver. 

 

 

We hope you enjoy reading this as it gives you some background information on the project as well as providing an insight into why this project was created. We hope it helps answer any questions you have about the Resident Author Programme.

Enhance Healthcare Ltd (Clancare Ltd) is a privately-owned care provider, owned by Mr. Manvir Singh and his business partner Mr. Paul McNiven, they are also joined by Manvir’s wife Lesley, who brings a wealth of knowledge from her extensive nursing background in community nursing. Lesley sees to daily operations as the operational director, it is with this close contact with the company’s directors that Enhance can pride themselves in the ability to invest in their workforce. Working with Enhance is not a faceless environment and each and every member of staff that is employed within the business are encouraged to develop both personally and professionally and inspired to continually find new and exciting ways to add innovative practice and enrichment to the lives of those we support. Driving up quality and excellence really is a team effort here at Enhance and that is key to what we do every day!

Our resident author programme has been developed and delivered by Paul McDonagh, Paul has worked within The Firs care home since 1999, throughout which time Paul had been employed within an ancillary role. After the takeover of Clancare Ltd by Enhance Healthcare Ltd and the commencement of new management within The Firs care home in April 2018 it became apparent very quickly what talent lay within Paul and the value of opportunity that he offered with bringing enrichment to the life of the residents within our care homes

Having taken the vision of the resident author programme to our Operations director Lesley Singh, Lesley immediately seen the value of such a resource and supported a pilot programme to be rolled out across the group, commencing within Paul’s base home, here at The Firs and latterly being rolled out in our 7 sister homes, along with our community-based support service ELSS.

 

Each person who wishes to take part in the Resident Author Programme is interviewed either separately or with their family and a series of questions asked about their lives. The answers to these questions along with any information already on file is used to help them write their life story.

Each interview is recorded because it makes it easier to create an authentic first-person narrative account of their lives and because the audio may be required to produce audiobook editions of the life stories for those with impaired vision who cannot read the large print editions.

On average, from the moment of interview to the order for printed copies of the books, each life story takes 10 hours to write, but slightly more if a lot of original poems are written for an individual. Paul McDonagh along with being an accomplished (and published author) is also blessed with the ability to write poems and verse, with many residents being involved and penning their own personal poems that relate to their life memories.

Having the option of sharing these stories with families, friends and loved ones ensures that memories live on. It can offer great comfort and pleasure in sharing these memories and provides an opportunity for engagement and quality of time spent together during the initial information gathering phase.

As well as rolling out the Resident Author Programme across other care homes, the following additional book titles are currently in production: Riding a Bike in Millport, A Bunch of Characters, The Firs Sketchbook and Poems That Care.

Riding a Bike in Millport is a travel book in the same vein as On the Way to Iona. Just like that book, Riding a Bike in Millport is about the journey made to help write a life story. Both the Firs Sketchbook and A Bunch of Characters are photo books based on the hand-drawn sketches done by a former employee and friend of the Firs Care Home. The poetry book, Poems That Care, contains the poems that have been written especially for people who now live in the various care homes in which the Resident Author Programme operates.

The pilot programme has successfully seen the completion of three initial books across each nine very unique and differing care settings, and as expected displayed the diversity of the client group that we support. The success of the programme has re-affirmed in us all as care practitioners that everyone has a story to tell, many just require the opportunity and platform to do so and if we only take the time to provide this the results have proven to be priceless.

The care home workforce is diverse and innovative and provides support to thousands of individuals across Scotland.  Although faced with many challenges staff continually deliver high standards of care and support to ensure that individuals can access the care they need in a manner that is respectful and dignified and takes into account their increasingly complex needs. 

The ongoing demand for services enabling individuals to stay in their own homes for as long as possible means that when people move into a care home invariably their level of support is much greater.  Care homes have risen to this challenge and due to an incredibly dedicated team of nurses and care and support workers are able to ensure that people are well cared for which reduces the number of hospital admissions and the upheaval that results from stays in hospitals. 

Care home workers are known to be willing to take part in projects and pilots that can introduce improved ways of working to ensure that they are continually improving their support and adapting to meet changing needs in a person-centered manner.  This takes into account the individuality of the people who move into care homes with their diverse histories and backgrounds. 

It is always a privilege during forum meetings to meet with care home providers and to find out the work that they are involved in.  This can be around staff working within the promoting excellence in dementia framework, working to the new national health and social care standards and work around palliative and end of life care. 

Whether a provider is a well-established organization or a relatively new and small provider the really innovative and fascinating work that takes place is inspiring.  Again the willingness of staff to go above and beyond the remit of their roles really displays the values that this workforce has and a completely unique set of skills that at times cannot be taught but is wholly taken for granted. 

The staff and managers at Glenburnie Care Home have been continually updating and improving their care and support workers dementia learning and development journey.  At Glenburnie Care they have developed a new dementia training programme which is now being rolled out to all their staff members to ensure that they have a “whole home approach” to dementia care. 

They have utilised a new resource consisting of a dementia skilled level train the trainer course with a view to train more care and support workers to become trainers.  This is partly due to their limited capacity as a smaller organization but has resulted in a huge impact on the outcomes for their services users and taps into the bigger picture of shared learning amongst staff and career development. 

Across the country care home providers are continuing to invest in their workforces learning and development across a wide variety of care provision.   

 

At Crossreach the managers are ensuring that all their valuable care and support workers are receiving dementia training to the enhanced level of the promoting excellence framework.  Crossreach have also incorporated some of the skilled level dementia elements in other training courses for example in their induction training for new staff members. 

They currently have nine in house trainers and they also have 36 dementia ambassadors with a view to having another eight staff members becoming dementia ambassadors in the near future.  Their dementia ambassadors receive good support from their organisation and they meet up to three times a year to discuss further learning and development needs. 

At the end of the year staff produce evidence on “what we did well” which results in more effective leadership skills and they have used SSSC step into leadership resources to provide better support to their workforce. 

 

At Scottish Care we would like to thank the incredible care home workforce for their dedication to their work and to the individuals who they support.  Time and again the relationships that are developed and built between care workers and service user can be pivotal to the quality of life experienced.  Care workers are great advocates for their service users and are best placed on many occasions to be instrumental in obtaining the best support that cares for individuals but ensure that their independence is also maintained.  The social care workforce skills and knowledge must be recognised and listened to when planning care and support for the future. 

 

 

 

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Many care home residents and carers who start gardening hope for improvements to physical fitness and the happy, relaxed mood that tending plants can bring. While gardening undoubtedly is one of the best ways to boost physical activity and mental wellbeing, often there are other changes that come about when people begin to tend a little plot of green. From reminiscing to spontaneous sing-alongs, gardening can have a whole host of surprising effects. 

At a Care Centre on the East side of Glasgow, our Trellis Project Advisor helped residents get stuck into a programme of gardening activities. The keen gardeners in this home didn’t need much support to get off the starting blocks and we found they’d been busy planting up some barrels with herbs and sweet peas on their own initiative, ahead of our third workshop. The group’s enthusiasm for their new gardening activities was inspiring.  

The activity coordinator, following a suggestion from our Project Advisor, approached a well-known DIY chain to ask if they had any burst bags of compost to spare and was rewarded with a 10-bag donation. She said the Trellis support service exceeded her expectations in the quantity of helpful advice and ideas provided. The encouragement we brought led to residents ‘…getting really engaged in gardening activities and growing tomatoes, salad leaves, herbs and an attempt at potatoes this year…’ Residents said they’ve been ‘getting great pleasure from the activity but also harvesting, tasting and seeing what we had grown used by the chef for our meals in the home.’ The coordinator added, ‘I had no gardening experience. Working with Trellis gave me the confidence to try things and explore what is possible. Our residents were fully involved in the whole process. The benefits last long after the sessions have ended. For many participants the experience helped them recall memories of their own gardens or working with parents in the garden when they were children. We also created a photo album record of our gardening year which we often look at together and talk about plans for what to grow next year.’ From expressing their galloping gourmet side and savouring the fruits of their labours to the creative project of creating a photo album, this gardening group enjoyed more than just the satisfaction of seeing their plants flourish.  

At a care home in a large Victorian building in Crieff, residents and staff were keen to start making more of the patch of garden behind the house. Trellis staff helped them identify the existing plants as well as compile a shopping list of new varieties that would thrive in the shady and sunny corners of the plot. We also ran a demonstration session to inspire care workers and residents alike. As we planted bulbs and sowed pea seed into home-made paper pots, one of the gentlemen burst into song. Soon others joined in. Several residents were enjoying the activity so much they became a veritable production line of bulb pots, and with all the happy singing in the room, it somehow didn’t feel like a cold and grey January day any longer. 

We’ve compiled a new video to help people in care homes try out some simple gardening activities. The film is short – under 3 minutes – and shows you everything you need to run a short session that can be done indoors or out, any time of year. The ‘Nifty Spring Onions’ activity is designed to produce results quickly, giving a sense of reward in a short time, and the onion sets, being easy to handle, don’t demand the coordination and fine motor skills that can make sowing very fine seed so tricky. The activity is suitable for wheelchair gardeners and can be adapted to suit people with all levels of physical fitness.  

What do you feel when you go into a garden? Happiness? Curiosity? A sense of calm? Or, like me this morning, amused irritation, as I watched a thrush attack the alpine strawberries, swallowing some, dashing others on the path – presumably not to her taste. Lots of people speak about how gardens have a clever way of making them forget their troubles. 

Gardens and gardening are a great way to increase the sense of calm in care settings for residents and staff, visitors and volunteers alike. The joy and pride that people feel when hyacinth bulbs they planted start to peep through the soil and the excitement and anticipation of seeing windowsill rocket seeds start to sprout are priceless for both those receiving and giving care. Many people will have enjoyed gardening before moving to a care home and it’s important to ensure that important part of their home life can be continued in care. But gardens, even just looking out at a garden view from indoors, have the power to lower heart rate and blood pressure, reduce feelings of pain, anger and stress and to foster relaxation and contentment. Whether a care home is your residence or workplace, benefits like these are too important to ignore.  

There’s plenty of help to get started. Trellis, the charity for therapeutic gardening, runs inspirational training and demonstration sessions to give care personnel and carers the skills and confidence to run gardening activities through the seasons. We run an information service to answer all your queries and provide on-site advice about planting plans, tools, funding and accessible layout. 

We love helping people realise their gardening ambitions and helping people see it’s easier than they think, so get in touch, what are you waiting for? 

Book and find out more about our seasonal gardening training or register interest for the Ayrshire events, coming soon, here: 

To find out more, visit:

Website - www.trellisscotland.org.uk

Twitter -  @Trellis_Network

FB - @TrellisScotland

 

 

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One thing that people with Dementia often find is that their ability to identify and relate to rhythm and music doesn’t change much. Music can be an extremely calming and soothing force. Listening to music releases dopamine, a chemical in the brain associated with feelings of pleasure. It therefore makes sense that music is a worthwhile pursuit for those living with Dementia, especially those who enjoyed music throughout their lives. 

Anderson’s Care Home is working in partnership with researchers from the School of Innovation from the Glasgow School of Art in Elgin and are having great success in bringing the local community and Anderson’s Care Home together using different music interventions both inside and outside of the care home. The overall goal is to help residents to develop their personal identity, quality of life and holistic wellbeing. There has been a series of workshops coupled with personal, group and community-based music sessions. The researchers explored how music could be used as a tool to build relationships with residents, understand what is important to them and hear their stories. They asked about what songs were important to them and then these songs were then used to help connect the resident with their memory in the future and also in the group sessions to connect with family/friends/staff/other resident’s. These songs will eventually create an Anderson’s Playlist. Moving forward with the project there will be a 3-day gala in August with different music interventions and activities, such as a local high school coming in to help create instruments and then using these instruments to create music together. These activities will be tried and tested with the hope of developing a programme of activities that the residents enjoy. 

Please visit this link to keep up to date with this innovative project.  

https://futurehealthandwellbeing.org/bringing-communities-and-care-together 

 

Following on from this and thinking about how connecting with the local community and spending time with loved ones can positively affect people living with Dementia. I thought about the recent success of the garden party organised by the Royal Blind Society in their Jenny’s Well Care Home. It was a time where family, friends, staff and those in the local community gathered to laugh, connect and have some fun together. The residents helped on the day and there was live music, a BBQ, raffles, crafts and cake stalls…Yum! Not forgetting the dancing entertainment from Jump n Jive! This is what it is all about – connecting with others makes us feel happier and reduces feelings of isolation. 

https://twitter.com/RoyalBlind/status/1144962187343085568 

Some of the dancing enjoyed by residents in Jenny’s Well Care Home.