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Healthcare
professionals share best practice on transforming dementia care for
local patients
LOCAL healthcare
professionals, dementia care organisations, patients and carers
gathered to share ideas and experience to improve care for people
with dementia, at an event organised by specialists in dementia care
at the Royal.
Held at the Foresight Centre in the University of Liverpool, the
event - 'Embracing Dementia Care – it's everyone's business',
was the second annual summit to be organised by the Royal. The event
brought together a variety of people and organisations with
professional or person experience of dementia care. It included
speakers from the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University
Hospitals NHS Trust, Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust
and Mersey Care NHS Trust as well as Alzheimer's Society ambassador
Ann Johnson MBE who gave a passionate speech about her personal
experience of living with dementia.
Ann was diagnosed with early onset dementia eight years ago and
called on guests at the summit to "Please help, please care,
please inform, please understand, please love me for who I am,
please be with me. If you can, please understand the sheer terror I
live in every day."
To those people living with dementia highlighted how using
Dictaphones, talking clocks and audiobooks can help and she added,
"no matter what stage of dementia you're at, even in later
stages, you've got a life to live so please go and live that life as
best you can."
Event organiser Shaun Lever, advanced dementia practitioner at the
Royal said:- "This year's Embracing Dementia Care highlighted
the transformation of services for patients with dementia along with
the excellent collaborative work we have been involved in, working
with other Trusts and community healthcare providers. It was also a
great opportunity for us all to get together and share our
experience on what works to ensure patients with dementia received
good quality, seamless care wherever they were being looked after.
Both at our hospitals and at Aintree Hospital specialist training on
dementia is provided to all nursing staff outlining symptoms of
dementia, early detection and how to manage challenging behaviour.
Some of things that are helping to transform care the introduction
of an individualised communication tool called:- 'This is Me.'
This document outlines a patient's likes and dislikes, their family
and home life and their hobbies and interests. It goes with them
wherever they are being cared for and means that staff know more
about the patient's personality so they can care for them in a more
personal way and the patient or their carer isn't being asked the
same questions over and over again. We also have specially trained
volunteers who will sit with patients with dementia while they are
in the hospital and keep them occupied with a range of things such
as games or historic items like ration books to help stimulate
conversations."
Jane Green, matron for dementia care at Aintree University Hospital
Foundation Trust said:- "The dementia care teams at Aintree
and the Royal work closely together to ensure that the care we
provide to our patients is standardised. We are all working towards
the same aims; that staff are skilled in caring for people with
dementia, working in partnership with their carers, that assessment
and early identification of dementia is promoted and individual care
plans for patients are used and that the hospital environment
supports good quality dementia care."
Jane King, senior occupational therapist for Mersey Care NHS Trust,
outlined to guests at the dementia summit how important reminiscence
therapy can be. She said:- "Using items familiar from a
patient's past; such as a shaving brush or a tool for darning socks;
can help stimulate them. These reminiscence sessions promote
conversation, inclusiveness and a sense of wellbeing among dementia
patients."
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BACK TO SCHOOL
BUT NOT FOR ALL - TRUANCY RATES ROCKET AS FAMILIES STRUGGLE TO PAY
BILLS AT the
start of the new school year, UNISON the UK's largest union, is
warning that more children are missing school as a direct result of
the Government's austerity measures. A survey of education welfare
(truancy) officers (EWOs) reveals families struggling to pay bills,
to afford school uniforms or dinner money and suffering from other
poverty-related issues.
A shrinking pool of specialist staff to help children stay in school
means that the numbers truanting will continue to rise. Estimates
suggest there are only about 2,000 EWOs responsible for the 8.2m
pupils in the UK aged between 5 to 16 years old to 1:4,100 pupils.
Government spending cuts also mean that less funds are spent on
early intervention and prevention, with many authorities withdrawing
support and resorting to fines. This, says the union, is counter
productive in cases where the family can't afford to pay and
desperately need help and support to keep their kids in school. 50%
of EWOs report that levels of truancy have increased over the past
year. Top reasons are housing problems; family income suffering due
to welfare and benefit changes; lack of money for school uniforms or
dinner money, housing problems, family breakdown, drug and alcohol
problems and bullying.
UNISON believes that this is storing up huge problems, not just for
individual children, but for society as a whole.
Helga Pile, UNISON National Officer for Education Welfare Officers,
said:- "Our children are our most precious resource. They are
our future and we are letting them down badly if we allow so many to
slip out of the education system. These kids should be in school,
not out roaming the streets where they can become the targets of
drug-rings, paedophiles or getting involved in petty crime.
They come from the most vulnerable families and they need a helping
hand, not punishment, so that they get a fair crack at life. The
Government needs to accept its duty to care for all our children and
that means ensuring resources are there when they are needed."
Survey results:-
► 78% report that staff numbers have been cut;
► 68% report that the amount of money spent on
prevention has been cut;
► The use of penalty fines have gone up for 63% of respondents and
prosecutions had increased for 42%.
Major causes of truancy levels include:-
► Family breakdown (55%) with (42%) saying this has some impact;
► Drug and alcohol problems (57%) with (40%) citing some impact;
► Unauthorised holidays (48%) and (43%) has some impact;
Causes having some impact on truancy
include:-
► Bullying (62%) with an additional (26%) saying this is a major
factor;
► (60%) family incomes suffering because of cuts to welfare and
benefits changes, with a further (28%) saying this is a major cause;
► housing problems (66%) - (27%) cited this as a major factor;
► lack of money for school uniforms or dinner money (58%) with (31%)
rating this a major factor;
► Staying at home to care for parents or relatives (62%);
► Special educational needs not being met (58%) with (29%) saying
this has some impact.
Overnight maintenance for M53
around Ellesmere Port
OVERNIGHT work to deliver
maintenance and repairs along the M53 near Ellesmere Port will be
starting next month. The Highways Agency will start to deliver the
£275,000 project on Tuesday, 1 October 2013 and it should be
completed by Friday, 8 November 2013. The work, which includes
resurfacing and drainage repairs, will focus along on the main
Southbound carriageway and slip roads between Junction 5 at Eastham
and Junction 9 at Ellesmere Port. Work will be done overnight
between 10pm and 5am and total closures for the work include the
Southbound carriageway between Junctions 6 at Hooton and 7 at
Overpool as well as the Southbound entry slip roads at Junctions 6
and 9 and the Junction 7 Southbound exit slip road. During the
project all slip roads at Junction 5 will close as will approaches
onto the junction roundabout along the A41. Good, clearly-signed
diversions will be in place with low delays for drivers. Highways
Agency project sponsor Jakub Malaj said:- "This is routine
repairs and maintenance that will give drivers smoother and safer
journeys along this stretch of the M53. We have timed the work to
ensure it takes place overnight at the quietest time of the week,
but anyone travelling overnight should leave a little bit of extra
time to take the clearly-signed diversions during carriageway and
junction closures." |
