Royal Star & Garter launches fundraising campaign amid COVID-19 pandemic
A charity which cares for ex-servicemen and women has launched a new fundraising campaign during the COVID-19 crisis. The campaign, which adopts Royal Star & Garter’s core strapline Care with courage, highlights the every-day bravery displayed by its residents and staff. It comes as the charity faces increased costs and a loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic while it focuses on ensuring the safety and well-being of its residents and staff. A video which accompanies the campaign features a resident’s daughter, care staff and the charity’s Chief Executive Andy Cole discussing the courage prevalent in Royal Star & Garter’s three Homes in Solihull, Surbiton and High Wycombe. The charity provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia. Royal Star & Garter is currently facing significant additional costs to meet the fight against COVID-19. Staffing levels have increased to maintain its exceptional levels of care and in just two months it has spent over £100,000 on personal protective equipment (PPE) and new technology. At the same time, it is seeing a reduction in fundraising income. Sophie Wiseman works at the Solihull Home. During April staff there lived and worked on-site to reduce the risk of infection. She spoke about how staff are adapting to deal with the current situation: “In these uncertain times, all the staff have gone above and beyond, to keep our residents safe, well and happy. I have, like others I work with, changed roles, so that we can continue to provide the outstanding care we always deliver to our residents.” Vanessa Brooks is a Health Care Assistant at High Wycombe. She said the challenges they face are worthwhile when she sees happy residents: “Despite what’s happening at the minute, this is a really good place to work and I love coming to work. Some of us are spending nights here, but it’s just about ensuring the residents are safe. We’re all doing things we might not normally do, but we’re a family and that’s what families do – they muck in together.” Julia Annandale’s mother is at the Surbiton Home. She thought ‘Care with courage’ was perfect for the campaign: “I think it’s terrific because that’s what it is – it’s care done with huge courage. Courage just turning up for work every day, courage at keeping the whole show on the road without families who are unable to visit, courage in hiding their own personal worries so that the residents can stay calm and cheerful. I can’t thank the Royal Star & Garter staff enough for turning up every day during this crisis, and for making what must be enormous efforts, to keep everything as normal as possible.” Her son Will added: “We’ve been really worried that Granny would be stressed or anxious, but every single member of staff and every carer has done an amazing job at Royal Star & Garter over the past few weeks in managing the knock-on effect of what’s happening at the moment, and making sure that residents can cope without any visitors. We’re all incredibly grateful that Granny’s being so well looked after. We want to thank them for everything they do.” Royal Star & Garter was formed in a past national crisis, in 1916, to care for severely injured soldiers return from the First World War. Chief Executive Andy Cole said: “For over a hundred years, our charity has had the ethos of care with courage at its heart. The veterans we support have shown courage through their service, and as they have needed us they have taken another courageous step to be supported in our Homes as they face living with disabilities or dementia. And today, in the middle of these extraordinary circumstances, our staff show amazing care with courage every day. Our veterans have shown such dedication and service to our country, we now need to be there for them. Please support Royal Star & Garter however you can.” To support Royal Star & Garter and its Care with courage campaign, go to: https://starandgarter.org/carewithcourage/
How genuine anonymized patient data will unlock the potential of healthcare
We are now, unquestionably, living in the age of big data. The vast amounts of traceable data generated daily can direct everything from digital transformation strategies to epidemiology. And nowhere is this more relevant than in healthcare, especially at a time where analysing COVID-19 data is crucial to tackling the global pandemic. The amount of health data being generated is growing at a 48% rate annually. This year alone, an estimated 2,314 exabytes of healthcare data will be produced. Rapid technological advancements are creating new challenges in the industry when it comes to data privacy. But, at the same time, the opportunity to transform this mass of data into actionable insights could power the future of healthcare. While public confidence in the collection and use of personal data has been tested by several high-profile data breaches, there are strong motivations to analyse individual patient data for secondary purposes. In research and drug development, for example, the use of large and highly relevant data sets can augment the findings of individual research projects and help to empirically prove concepts, emerging treatments and diagnostics. By enhancing healthcare delivery methods, society as a whole will benefit from healthcare professionals having the ability to predict epidemics, advance cures, and make patient stays in hospitals safer and more pleasant. This is data science that saves lives, improves the health of the nation and provides a level of social care.Yet healthcare is trapped in a unique double bind. If medical researchers are unable to extract analytical insights from data, then lives will unnecessarily be lost and quality of life will be needlessly diminished. At the same time, healthcare is bound by some of the most stringent data protection regulations. Clinicians who analyse patient data without detailed permissions risk major sanction, including loss of registration, as do their employers. The lack of these permissions for historic data is in large part because the types of research now being conducted didn’t exist when the data was collected. Recent data regulations have further underscored the need for transparency and consent regarding the use of personal data. The unintended consequence is that valuable repositories of medical data are now out of reach to researchers who need it to conduct work that greatly benefits society at large, or even worse these datasets face deletion entirely.In other words, the sector has the data to transform lives and healthcare – but is frequently unable to use it. How to release the double bind?The assurance of patient privacy is fundamental to healthcare, even where patients give permission for their information to be used. Many support the use of their data for research, but this is accompanied by the expectation that it will be used appropriately for specific purposes and is adequately protected. Therefore, personal health data is unlikely to ever be truly open. But the rewards for use of such data sets are so great, altruistic and universal that means must be found, especially as new avenues or fields of research will likely require analysing this data in new and unforeseen ways. Finally, there is the future. Technology moves fast, and healthcare resources are precious. If providers are to invest in data-leveraging tech, they need to know it can cope with new approaches as they arise. Genuine anonymization changes everythingIf patient data is rendered truly anonymous, data protection regulations, such as the GDPR do not apply and organisations are no longer subject to limitations that apply to personal data. Provided the original data was lawfully collected, a healthcare organisation can use data from all their patients, not just those that consented to analytics being conducted. They can use the data for all types of research and the data is not subject to retention requirements. Truly anonymized data is also not subject to data subject rights such as access requests, the right to be forgotten and the right to object to processing. This delivers a comprehensive and stable analytics data universe that can provide longitudinal views essential for research programmes studying a particular area over a long period of time. Effective anonymization provides the ability to access extensive, coherent and historic data that can be built upon each day without ever damaging patient trust. Achieving the right balance between the desire to maximize data analytics initiatives and the demand for protecting privacy requires a sophisticated approach. It is often an iterative process and requires cutting-edge technology and a deep appreciation of current data protection regulations. No other optionHow genuine anonymized patient data will unlock the potential of healthcareEnormous transformations are taking place across the healthcare sector, but trust issues are not going away. With 60% of consumers revealing they are uneasy with companies using their personal data for analytics, the opportunity for anonymization is clear. Many healthcare professionals realise the huge benefits that data and data analytics can bring but they cannot yet access those benefits. But we must find a way to unlock those benefits. With an ageing population, greater medical understanding and increasingly sophisticated tech, the time has come for the sector to overcome current barriers while still assuring patient privacy. It’s time for clinicians to demand securely anonymized, historical and verified data sets that will let science and knowledge advance, while protecting the privacy rights of the people behind those data sets. This will be a win-win for society in general.
International Nurses Day 2020: The value of nursing associates
On International Nurses Day 2020 (May 12), Denise Baker, Head of School of Allied Health and Social Care at the University of Derby, reflects on the growth of the pioneering nursing associates training programme and the value of the role in such unprecedented times as these. Back in 2015, the government announced plans for a new addition to the care workforce to enable healthcare professionals to develop their skills to become a registered nursing associate, complementing care provided by healthcare assistants, registered nurses and other allied health professionals. Eleven sites across the UK were chosen to deliver the first wave of training, run over a two-year period, and the University of Derby was one of them. In January 2017, more than 100 trainee nursing associates arrived at the University. Six months earlier, organisations from across the East Midlands including educational institutions, care homes, acute, community and mental health trusts and hospices, had come together to agree a consortium approach to the nursing associate training programme and four training providers had worked fast and furiously to develop curricula for them to study. Partnerships had been forged where none existed previously and new ways of working had been developed at pace. No one knew exactly what the outcome would be but, almost like pioneers, we all felt it was territory that needed to be explored. Looking back, that day is filled with a mixture of memories for me. It had been an intense six months; initially there was a team of two and we knew we needed to teach four cohorts across two sites. It was new, it was unknown and, already, I felt part of something which would fundamentally alter how healthcare would be shaped in the future. On the first day back in January 2017, there was a buzz of excitement. Videos of welcome from Health Education England were played, guest speakers came to talk about the importance of the nursing associate role, trainees were encouraged to get to know each other and local senior NHS staff were on hand to offer their own support. But no one really knew what the next two months would bring, let alone the next two years. Fast forward to 2019, the first cohort of trainees had completed their foundation degree and were ready to enter the professional register as a nursing associate. Some had stepped aside during that time, but the majority had blossomed. There have been national events where trainees have spoken about their experiences, there has been national debate and scepticism about the role, there have been happy and sad tears, but throughout, there has been determination; determination to succeed, to make their families proud, to make a difference to people’s lives because they can offer care differently to before – determination to be pioneers. All education is an opportunity for personal development, as well as a time to acquire new knowledge and skills. Working on the development of the health and social care support workforce, however, has been a personal career highlight. Many students have come into university feeling they weren’t good enough, were too old, didn’t have the right IT skills, had been ‘failures’ at school or just thinking that it was too late for them now. Foundation degrees and higher apprenticeships have enabled us to challenge those perceptions and provide learning opportunities for hundreds of support workers, either as nursing associates or assistant practitioners. One quality which higher apprentices definitely do not lack is enthusiasm. Their confidence increases week by week and by the time the first module is nearing completion after eight weeks, the majority have settled into university and are well into their stride. Yes, it’s challenging – they have demanding jobs,and busy lives and now they are taking on a full-time course of education. However, they bring so much into the classroom. The majority recognise this as their one opportunity to get a promotion, make a difference to their lives and to move forward on a journey they had only dreamed of being able to take. Those 100+ pioneers were of a variety of ages and backgrounds. There were people who had been support workers for years, others for months. Some had fallen into healthcare by accident and found they loved the role and wanted to do more. Some had started their lives in other parts of the world or had taken a career change. A few had masters degrees already, some had nothing more than the few qualifications they had gained at the age of sixteen. Many trainees saw the development of the nursing associate role as a step towards their goal of becoming a nurse, but circumstances had perhaps conspired against them, and the removal of the bursary from September 2017 onwards meant that some were unwilling to take on the debt. Here was an opportunity, and although the path ahead was uncharted, we all embarked on a voyage of discovery. There were many twists and turns along the way, but that only made the culmination of the journey so much more memorable. Here were a group of trainees, lecturers, clinicians and managers who had worked together towards a common goal – it was like nothing I had experienced in the past or anything I am ever likely to again. The first cohort of trainee nursing associates have continued to inspire. Some have progressed with their dreams of becoming registered nurses, while others have embraced the associate role and made it their own. Some of our current trainee nursing associates are helping to support the efforts in beating the Covid-19 pandemic. On International Nurses Day 2020 we have so much to be thankful for and I will always be proud of the small part I have played in this part of 200 years of history.
NCF Survey finds that only 22% of Social Care Workers have been able to access testing
The National Care Forum surveyed its members about the new testing arrangements. The survey represents the perspectives of a wide range of organisations who between them employ 31,262 staff. Of these 6,469 were identified as being a priority for testing (due to having symptoms) and attempts were made to get them tested. Less than a quarter (1,436) were actually able to access testing (22%). On 15 April, the Social Care Action Plan made an absolute commitment to testing for care workers: “We are rolling out testing of social care workers …. There is now capacity available for every social care workerwho needs a test to have one, just as there is for NHS staff and their families.” This promise is not being met. Our survey shows that the employer portal is not working for social care employers. Using this route, only 2% (138 out of 6469) of staff were able to receive a test at drive-through centres, with no home testing being available on the system via this route. There is a significant manual backlog in the system, which means that large numbers of providers seeking to access testing via this route are not yet even entered onto the system, and there is no prioritisation for social care employers. In the words of two of our members: ‘I sent an email on Monday 27th April to register onto the portal & sent it again on the 29th April. After not hearing from them I phoned on 1st May to be told there was a backlog with registration onto the portal and I had to wait. The contact couldn’t give me a timeframe & as of today (4.5.20), we have still not been contacted.’ ‘We have not had any success with the employer portal. Despite several e-mails being sent to register we have not heard anything back at all. Therefore, none of our staff have been able to be tested through this process.’ The self-referral portal appeared to prove more successful with 583 staff managing to get a test via this route. Out of this number, 546 attended drive-through appointments but only 37 received home testing kits. This route, whilst proving more successful, only enabled 9% of the staff who needed testing to obtain a test. There are a number of significant issues with the self-referral route. Again, there is no prioritisation for care staff and therefore to obtain a test you have to compete against all other eligible keyworkers and members of the public. This means that employers are not able to plan a strategic approach to testing to align with the homes they most need testing in and employees are under no obligation to report their test results with their employer. Local testing systems seem to be the most successful, where they are in place. 715 members of staff have managed to access testing through local systems. However, this is only 11% of the total number of staff who need testing (715 out of 6469). Local testing systems remain hugely variable and inconsistent across localities – where they work well, testing is effective and efficient and responsive. However, it is a postcode lottery. Vic Rayner, Executive Director of the National Care Forum says: “The government’s promise to provide tests for all staff is exposed as pure words. Social care needs to be systematically prioritised in each and every testing system, in order for government to live up to its commitment. We are calling for: The prioritisation of social care employers through the Getting Tested Portal to ensure they have a strategic and targeted prioritization of all their employees – regardless of symptoms as previously promised by the government and for social care workers to be given priority status on the self-referral portal.”
Innovative dashboard to manage staffing levels during Coronavirus pandemic
During the greatest public health crisis in a century, specialist nursing care provider, Exemplar Health Care, is continuing to innovate by introducing new technology across its care home network, to help manage and maintain staffing levels. The current COVID-19 pandemic has placed a great pressure on the health and social care sector, which has resulted in the need to recruit additional staff. In response to this challenge, Exemplar Health Care has introduced new tools and processes to ensure that every care home has the staff levels required to ensure that service users continue to receive the best quality care. As such, Exemplar Health Care has implemented a new online dashboard that provides real-time information about staffing levels across its 32 homes. When colleagues enter and leave one of the care homes, they are required to sign in and out on an iPad. This information feeds into the dashboard and is updated every 15 minutes; providing the operations team with a real-time view of how many colleagues are in each home at any given time. Selina Wall, Senior Director of Operations at Exemplar Health Care, says: “Our care homes are staffed 24/7, so one of my key priorities each day is guaranteeing that we have the right number of colleagues working in our care homes to support our service users. This is even more pressing when staffing levels are driven by the assessed needs of the people that we support. The implementation of the dashboard has provided me with real time information and reassurance. “This is a much more efficient way of tracking staffing levels as it has reduced the number of emails and phone calls with home managers, meaning that we all have more time to spend supporting our residents and colleagues.” Since the start of the pandemic, Exemplar Health Care has recruited over 200 new support workers, on both temporary and permanent contracts, and has enlisted the support of temporary and agency staff to help cover staff shortages, due to sickness or isolation. For more information about Exemplar Health Care visit https://www.exemplarhc.com/
Borough Care Staff Show Gratitude For Donations
Staff at Borough Care are extremely grateful to residents’ families and members of the wider community for their donations and kind words of support, as they continue to care for residents during the current coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic. Borough Care is the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport and has eleven homes across the borough. Lindsay Hadfield, Activity Lifestyle Facilitator at Borough Care’s Silverdale home in Bredbury, says: “We have received lots of wonderful donations, including cotton laundry bags, hand creams, safety visors, fruit, cakes and other food items. One young person has sent us beautiful pictures she has drawn and coloured, which we have put in the windows at Silverdale. We couldn’t be prouder to know that people of all ages, and from all walks of life, are thinking of us and sending their thoughts and gratitude. It means the world to all of us.” Staff at Bryn Haven in Brinnington have also received some lovely handmade laundry bags, along with cupcakes decorated with the message: ‘After every storm there is a rainbow of hope’. Dr Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, says: “All our staff are continuing to work so hard in these challenging times and it’s heart-warming that people recognise their commitment. It means so much to our staff to feel appreciated and valued for the work they are doing supporting residents. On behalf of all Borough Care staff, I would like to express our thanks to everyone who has taken the time to make and donate things, send messages of support and show their gratitude.”
Laundry measures for effective infection prevention and control
Having a comprehensive infection prevention control plan in place and ensuring that it’s being stuck to religiously throughout the care home is now more important than ever. Not only will stringent measures ensure hygienic standards, but also prevent the spread of infection and keep vulnerable residents and staff safe in the care environment. A vital part of this is the effective decontamination of linen and the proper and professional reprocessing of laundry. While every care establishment is different depending on its capacity and the type of care it provides and so naturally infection control policies will differ from care home to care home, there are some key factors and regulations that need to be taken into account when defining or revising your laundry procedures. Standard and enhanced processes From the moment linen is collected for laundering, it should be segregated appropriately depending on the type of risk that the resident poses; the standard process for ordinary soiled or fouled linen and the enhanced process for infectious linen. It’s important to ensure that your staff are fully briefed on both processes and when they should be used. Personal protective equipment (PPE), such as single-use aprons and gloves, should be used when handling any dirty or soiled linen, and once it has been removed from the resident’s bed it should be placed in the appropriate colour-coded container. This segregation should be carried out before the linen is transported to the laundry. Correct equipment and laundry design The correct equipment and process-led laundry design is a vital factor in ensuring effective infection prevention and control. Firstly, it’s important to calculate the machine capacity required to ensure you have the right equipment to cater for the volume of laundry produced. We normally work on the assumption that a standard residential care home will need to allow for 0.5kg of laundry per resident, per hour, while for a nursing home this increases from anything from 0.6kg to 0.75kg. The machines you’re using should be professionally installed and maintained commercial models that can provide the optimum wash cycle times and temperatures, and when paired with specialist detergent, the agitation of laundry required to kill infectious diseases. The Department of Health’s Health Technical Memorandum 01-04 defines that washing should be held at either 71 degrees for at least three minutes, or 65 degrees for at least 10 minutes, for effective thermal decontamination to take place. All machines also need to be compliant with the Water Regulatory Advisory Scheme (WRAS) category 5 to prevent the mains water supply becoming contaminated from potentially hazardous or infectious waste. Well-considered laundry design can also help to ensure maximum infection prevention and control. Having a clear ‘dirty to clean’ flow, from washers, to dryers, to ironers to storage, helps ensure that there is enough room to manage all the laundry required and minimises the risk of recontamination. Clean linen should always be kept entirely separate from dirty items throughout the laundry process and stored in a clean area off the floor. You should also take the use of PPE into consideration with laundry design. Carefully consider all the activities and instances where this may be necessary and ensure that the correct dispensing and disposal equipment is easily accessible in the right locations. The same goes for handwashing facilities; hand wash basins, liquid soap, disposable paper towels and pedal-operated waste receptacles should be located at convenient points to be easily accessed by staff. While it may sound like a very obvious consideration, clean hands are the single most important factor for preventing the spread of infection and can ensure that harmful germs and micro-organisms are not being transferred to other people, equipment or surfaces. Responsibilities While everyone involved in the laundry process is responsible and accountable, it can be incredibly beneficial to remind managers and staff of their responsibilities so you can ensure the entire team is correctly fulfilling their requirements. Managers have a responsibility to ensure that all staff have the necessary knowledge to protect both residents and themselves from the spread of infection. This should be standardised throughout the business and everyone’s knowledge should be refreshed at least once a year. Managers are also responsible for the provision of the correct laundry equipment, including the supply of single use PPC for all staff. Staff are responsible for the appropriate use of PPE and correct equipment usage. They should be knowledgeable about good hand washing technique and employ it regularly during the working day. They should also have good knowledge about the difference between soiled and infectious linen, and how each should be bagged, handled and processed. It’s more important now than ever to revise your infection control plan to ensure that it’s thorough and prescriptive enough, and that all staff are familiar with the special precautions and measures they need to be taking to ensure the health and safety of the team and the care home’s residents. The policy should be a part of your company culture and ethos; lived and breathed by all care home staff. Nicola Whittaker, national account manager at the professional division of Miele
Work Together to Support End of Life Patients in Virtual Ward
A local charity and home care provider have joined forces to Support End of Life at home, helping to reduce the pressure on the NHS. St Helena Hospice has partnered with Bluebird Care Colchester and Tendring to provide its SinglePoint Virtual Ward service to patients and families in the comfort of their own homes, in the last days of life. The partnership comes as St Helena Hospice has adapted and expanded its SinglePoint service to act as a coordinator for all local services. This gives local people the option to stay out of hospital if they don’t need to go in, and for end of life care to take place in the patient’s own home. The Virtual Ward is an extension of the SinglePoint service, where patients receive similar personal care from healthcare assistants as they would at The Hospice, but in their own homes. This innovative service, frees up valuable bed space at the hospital, and local clinicians’ time, allowing them to focus on treating those who need to be cared for in hospital. Jo Tonkin, Director of Care at St Helena Hospice’s, said: “Our Virtual Ward has expanded significantly since we launched the service last year, and has evolved further because of the pandemic, with the number of beds growing from 8 to 14 in the last few weeks. We’re now delighted to be working alongside Bluebird Care Colchester and Tendring to help us increase the capacity of this service to allow us to support 14 patients at any one time. We reached out to Bluebird Care to work with us as they have an excellent reputation and portfolio for managing complex patients in the community. This has also allowed us to change our model of care, increasing the level of support we can provide. We are now able to visit patients up to three times a day, or more if necessary, depending on an individual’s need. We can now also support people for up to four weeks, whereas before the pandemic, it was up to two weeks.” Melvyn Plum, Managing Director of Bluebird Care Colchester & Tendring said: “Our whole team is immensely proud to provide vital support to St Helena Hospice at such a critical time. By utilising the latest cloud based technology we are able to streamline the referral process which allows an immediate response so we can put the care and support in place straight away. Our care assistants are rigorously trained to provide a unique service of personalised care from check-in visits through to full live-in support, so we are perfectly matched to assist the hospice and help our local community.” The Virtual Ward team has access to the SinglePoint specialists for advice and guidance if needed, such as for help with managing difficult symptoms. They can also help with psychological distress, not only for the patient, but also for the family. It can be a very challenging time for family when they are caring for a loved one at home. Jo Tonkin added: “Families sometimes find themselves in a situation where they can’t manage. Symptoms are challenging, the patient becomes distressed and ambulances may well be called to take the patient to hospital. The Virtual Ward has access to all the SinglePoint rapid response services to make sure we can deliver the right level of support for patients when they need it 24/7. Our aim is to avoid admission to the hospital or The Hospice and to help the patient to remain at home.” For similar articles visit our features section
Why protecting mental health is key to resilience during this crisis
These unprecedented times have seen the health and social care sector experience a huge upheaval. We’re all acutely aware of the immense pressure carers and front line staff are under as they fight an uphill battle day-in, day-out, with the country relying on them to care for the most vulnerable in our society. I think I speak for everyone when I say how incredibly proud we are of their amazing work. While some positives have come from this situation, in terms of the huge wave of recognition and gratitude for workers in this sector, it has also brought a significant amount of stress for individuals and even greater pressure for the sector as a whole. Afterall, the sector is partly responsible for ensuring the nation’s success in fighting this virus. This, combined with staff shortages, years of chronic underfunding within the sector, issues around accessing sufficient PPE, not to mention the fact that health and social care workers are putting themselves and their loved ones at increased risk of infection – it’s no wonder that underlying mental health issues of workers will come to the fore, now and following the conclusion of this crisis. During these unsettling times, protecting mental health and those of our colleagues is of utmost importance. Here are my tips on how to manage difficult conversations and provide a support system for the workforce: 1. Offer a listening earWhile it’s more essential than ever to check-in with colleagues to see how they’re coping, it’s also important to remember that people may find it difficult to come forward and express their worries or ask for help. By offering a listening ear and regularly checking-in shows that you care and makes it clear that you’re willing to talk when the time is right for them. Remember you are not there to judge or diagnose, just make time to talk. 2. Someone to turn toHaving qualified First Aiders for Mental Health in your team is an effective way to support employees’ wellbeing. Not only do these team members have the skills to identify pressure points and manage difficult situations, your employees will have a trusted member of the team that they can turn to. 3. Check ‘fine’ really means itWe all know that if someone says they are ‘fine’, it isn’t always the case. When we are going through challenging times it’s no surprise that people don’t want to burden others, which can lead to feelings of anxiety or stress to build up. It might sound simple, but by checking if someone is really fine, or by saying “no, how are you really feeling?”, can encourage them to open up. If someone does express any feelings of worry or anxiety with you, it can help to relay what they’ve said back to them, to show you’re actively listening and make sure you’ve understood them correctly. 4. Remember we’re all differentWe all react differently to difficult situations and it’s vital to remember that people will be impacted in different ways. While we are all uncertain about the long-term effects this outbreak will have on our lives, some of us will have increased anxiety about the health of loved ones, others will have decreased job security, financial worries, and some of us will have concerns about the effect on our children’s education. I believe it’s essential to open the conversation and support employers and employees in mental health first aid. This is fundamental to both the individual and the organisation. There are a range of First Aid for Mental Health courses available, which provide learners with the knowledge to recognise a range of mental health conditions, enabling them to signpost a person to appropriate help, recognise and manage stress, as well as the opportunity to qualify as a First Aider for Mental Health. Right now, it has never been more important to look after mental health and wellbeing and listen to each other’s concerns. By continuing to support each other, as an industry, we can remain resilient and weather this storm together. Lindsey Appleby-Flynn, Adult Health and Social Care Lead at Connect2Care For additional information, Connect2Care’s has developed a guide on providing wellbeing support. You can view it here. For more information on Connect2Care and its courses on First Aid Training for Mental Health, please visit www.connect2care.net.
