With dementia care in residential care settings becoming increasingly important as diagnoses rise, Person Centred Software has launched a new ‘Who I Am’ feature as part of its electronic evidence of care and care planning system, Mobile Care Monitoring. The feature enables staff to provide a more responsive and personalised quality of dementia care and improve residents’ quality of life.
The new feature enables care homes to share vital information about residents’ routines, life story and wishes from the care plan with carers via the mobile application. These personalised routines are vital when caring for those with dementia as it helps them to maintain their daily functions and minimise their anxiety.
Benefits of the new feature are already being realised. The manager at a care home in Sussex reports that the ‘Who I Am’ feature helped a carer to know how to support a resident when they were anxious and upset; the carer saw on ‘Who I Am’ that reading a prayer would soothe them. Similarly, a care home in North Somerset said that when a resident went to hospital, staff were able to provide personalised care and support. A hospital nurse got in contact with the care home to say that it was the best information she had ever seen
Jonathan Papworth, co-founder and director of Person Centred Software, says, “It became apparent to us that whilst administration software helps care providers’ efficiency, it doesn’t actually help those delivering care. Social care really only exists because of these people, so we decided to focus on improving the lives of the care staff users. With the new capability of ‘Who I Am’ at their fingertips, carers have all the information they need to further help and support their residents.”
‘Who I Am’ is modelled on Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘This is Me’ tool and other one-page profiles that are widely used in social care to improve the quality of information and ease of information sharing. Not only is information available on carers’ devices, but the hospital pack provided within Mobile Care Monitoring automatically collates the information from residents’ ‘Who I Am’ profiles to ensure staff fully understand residents at every stage of their health and social care journey.
Person Centred Software’s ‘Who I Am’ software addition is electronic, so staff can access up-to-date information securely whenever they need it, even when offline. This instant access is particularly important for new and agency staff and supports NICE best practice guidelines on dementia care. In 2018, NICE updated their dementia guidelines for the first time in 10 years, “With diagnoses on the rise, and 1 million due to have dementia by 2021, all health and social care professionals must be properly equipped to support people with dementia at every stage.”
With the addition of ‘Who I Am’, Mobile Care Monitoring further helps care providers comply with CQC’s Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) to improve quality of life for the 69% of residents living with dementia in UK care homes. Notably the KLOEs C1.4 and R1.2, which ask, “Do staff know and respect the people they are caring for and supporting, including their preferences, personal histories, backgrounds and potential?” and “How does the service make sure that a person’s care plan fully reflects their physical, mental, emotional and social needs…?”. ‘Who I Am’ creates a holistic resident profile that gives staff immediate insight into how best to support residents.
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