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Spring 2009 Care Professionals Newsletter

Welcome to the Spring 2009 Edition of our Care Professionals Newsletter

In this newsletter we have information and articles on the following:-

• Association of Continence Advice
• In Control! Are you serious?
• NHS Funded Continuing Healthcare
• Meet Two More Members of Our Care Service Team

Association of Continence Advice, (ACA)

Continence issues play a big part in the lives of the clients that Active Assistance supports and because of this I would like to share with you an organisation which we find invaluable in providing evidence based information on continence issues. The ACA also provides links with the Continence Advisors, (specialists), who are spread throughout the UK.

Introduction

The ACA is a multi-professional association open to all health and allied care professionals and to those who have a concern for the promotion of continence and the better management of incontinence. It started in 1980 with a questionnaire sent to every Health Authority and Board in the UK seeking to identify concerned professionals. At that time there were only 19 nurses in the UK identified as Continence Advisors; now most NHS Trusts and many private healthcare organisations have staff designated as continence specialists.

As continence care has changed, so too has the complexity of members backgrounds; with physiotherapists, occupational therapists, midwives, hospital, practice and district nurses, health visitors, lecturers, researchers, NHS managers, health care assistants, nursing homes and doctors increasingly represented alongside the central core of continence specialists.

The number of overseas members has also increased, reflecting that the pioneering work of the early founders has gained recognition throughout the world.

Colleagues in Continence

The National Association of Primary Care NAPC

NAPC is the only membership organisation whose main focus of support is General Practice and all its staff, while, at the same time, supporting Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in developing their relationships with them.

National Patient Safety Agency

The ACA has contacted the National Patient Safety Agency to enquire as to the incidence of catheter related infections. We will let you know when we have more information.

Awards and Courses

There are various awards that the ACA are involved in. It has a working partnership with the Nursing Times; two members of the ACA are on the editorial board of the NT continence journal and a member of the Executive committee is on the judging panel for the NT continence award.

The Nursing Times Continence Award, presented in association with the ACA, aims to reward best practice in continence care. The award is open to all nurses involved in continence promotion who are leading and supporting initiatives in primary and secondary care.

There are other awards available and can be found on the ACA Website: www.aca.uk.com

The Association for Continence Advice (ACA) is the UK's only multi-professional organisation for health and social care professionals working in the field of continence. It sets out to improve patient care via its membership and is always willing to offer advice and accept new members from all professions.

Continence care is not the domain of any one speciality; any organisation, institution, clinical speciality or individual can contribute towards the growing body of evidence in the speciality of continence.

The Association for Continence Advice, (ACA) have local branches throughout the UK and they are:

East Anglia, London, Mersey, North East, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South West, West Midlands, Wales and Yorkshire.

They can be contacted via the website: www.aca.uk.com for further information on membership and courses available.

Michelle Parry, Care Service Manager - Midlands & North West

In Control! Are you serious?

How many of these buzz words do you recognise? Personalisation, person centred, in control, enabling, choice, self directed support.

Quite a few I would imagine. They all speak to one thing - putting the 'service user' at the centre of everything and giving them control over how they choose to live their life and organise their care support. The concept is not new. The independent living movement fought for years to have more control over the services they received. The result was Direct Payments. We are entering a brave new world where the next stage of evolution is starting to happen with the launch of Personal Budgets, the pooling of multiple income streams into a single account to be spent in a way that the 'service user' feels best meets their needs. Choice and control is the new mantra for Government and most would agree it's long overdue.

Local Social Services Departments and Care Providers are bewildered. The current system is 'commissioning' led not 'service user' led. In practice this means that Social Services would traditionally contract with local Care Providers who would agree to provide x hours of care for £y per hour to the local population. Social Services sit between the user and the Care Provider and manage the relationship based on the terms of what became known as a 'block contract'. They remained in control and the Care Provider could plan based on a known demand for its service. All very cozy, until now.

I have on my desk 15 invitations to attend meetings with Social Services up and down the country. They want to talk about how they are planning to respond to this new way of working. Some think they have the answer, others are looking to engage with providers to help them seek it out. I think everyone agrees that the days of the 'block contract' are behind us but on the other hand few of these organisations want to see a totally free market where the user has a free reign.

A hybrid model is emerging and it's called the 'Approved List'. In practice what this means is that service users will have a choice, up to a point. They will be offered a choice of Care Providers from a list of approved ones. This allows Social Services to keep a leash on things and gives Care Providers half a chance of sustaining their business. The degree to which this undermines user choice and control can be debated. On the one hand such a list is a useful resource but it potentially could be extremely damaging if it is inadequate in meeting the needs of the local population. Herein lies my concern.

If the Approved List is made up of the same people who were on the block contract list, nothing will change. SCI people will continue to find themselves being offered a service that cannot meet their needs. So much for personalisation, person centred, in control, enabling, choice & self directed support!

So how is Active Assistance responding to these changes? Our live-in model enables our Clients to exercise much greater levels of control than traditional live-out models. The PA lives in their home, works under their direction and is available to respond flexibly to their needs. Combined with the specialist SCI skills and knowledge they possess, I think our service is already well ahead of the curve. Our response is therefore not to change our service (as many will have to do) but to ensure we get ourselves put on the Approved Lists. This is probably why I have 15 meetings in my diary!

Andrew Allan, Managing Director

STOP PRESS!

NHS Funded Continuing Healthcare

The SIA Academy, in partnership with Active Assistance, has just published a video guide to NHS Funded Continuing Healthcare. To view this click here.

Meet Two More Members of our Care Service Team

Katie joined Active Assistance in January of this year as a Care Service Manager.

Katie's background is that of Occupational Therapy, predominantly within the speciality of Spinal Cord Injury rehabilitation. Prior to joining the company Katie worked as a senior Occupational Therapist at The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield for 5 years. She has treated patients with varying levels of Spinal Cord Injury in both the acute stage and the rehabilitation setting and has a wealth of experience in upper limb management, environmental control units, assistive technology and moving and handling.

As an OT Katie has played a leading part in the hospital discharge planning process by assessing home environments, assessing for appropriate equipment and educating community health professionals in Spinal Cord Injury.

She has worked in a number of settings as an OT including a neuro rehabilitation unit, orthopeadic's and general medicine.

Prior to qualifying as an OT in 2001 Katie worked as an Assistant Manager of a residential care home and sheltered housing complex for older adults with Dementia and Parkinson's disease.

One of the most satisfying aspects of Katie's work is to see someone achieve their goals, 'going home' is often a patient's greatest wish and many obstacles have to be overcome. Working with Active has allowed Katie to see those goals realised in the long term and she is thoroughly enjoying visiting and supporting clients in her role as Care Service Manager.

Zoe Joined Active Assistance in August 2008. She manages a case load of 20 or so clients as well as assessing potential new clients and being involved in Independent Living Talks at Spinal Units and teaching new PAs.

Zoe qualified as a nurse in 1998 and has mostly worked as a bank nurse in many different areas such as A & E, General Medicine, Surgery, Urology, Neurology, Coronary Care, Haematology, Maternity and Gynaecology. She has also take A-levels and a full-time language degree since finishing her nurse training.

Zoe comments on her time with Active "I've really enjoyed getting to know my clients over the past few months and am looking forward to building those relationships in the future. Working closely with people with spinal injuries and neurological conditions has totally changed my view of disability. I can now see that it is society and your environment that disables you, I've met some amazing people who say 'Yes, it's tougher, but there's still a life to be lived' and that in turn inspires me."