Monday, 1 January 2018

Read our new publication on the 14,804 personal pledges received

Dementia Carer Voices launched our latest report on the 27th June and brought the printed version to the Scottish Parliament for discussion. It was great to see so many friends and supporters of the project come along to celebrate the new publication.

Please see this link for the online version of Dementia Carer Voices – Rights and the Carer Voice.

Dementia Carer Voices brought the voice of 14,000 health and social care staff and students to life in our new publication on the pledges received on our flagship ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign.
The ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign has involved an extensive outreach programme of over 600 talks delivered to health and social care professionals and students throughout the country, to engage with individuals at every stage of their career.

This has resulted in over 14,000 pledges being made by practitioners and students to improve experiences for caring for individuals. These pledges are often small changes, but can make a crucial difference for people who are at their most vulnerable. Some pledges that have been gathered include:

“I pledge to make a difference as the future nurse to listen to the carers and patient. To give them the best support and care they needed and not to make them ever feel isolated.” (Student nurse)
“I pledge that I will see the person with dementia as an individual who has lived their life from childhood, to falling in love, to having a family and growing old, to understand their story and how they would like to be cared for.” (Nurse)

You can view or download the publication at the link here
http://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/download/library/lib_595a42624d705/

The campaign has showcased the impact of personal stories; the recognition that all of us are individuals and not simply ‘patients’ or ‘staff members’, and that each of us has the ability to make things better for other people, both in our personal and professional lives. The DCV exhibition will showcase the ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign and crucially the pledges that have been gathered to date, along with the journey that the people who have made them have been on.

Thanks for reading my blog, You can now view my 8 short flims here! http://tommy-on-tour-2011.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/my-mums-name-was-joan-this-is-our-story.html DCV photo DementiaCarerRGBlandscape3_zpsa2f3d5ff.jpg

DCV photo DementiaCarerRGBlandscape3_zpsa2f3d5ff.jpg

“It’s about unleashing, not controlling” 2.0

Written by: William Kløverød Griffiths, Development Officer: House of Care, the ALLIANCE

William writes about his roles in Dementia Carer Voices and Scotland's House of Care over the past year at the ALLIANCE.

I started my first opinion piece – two months into joining the ALLIANCE’s Dementia Carer Voices project – with a quote from Don Berwick, President of Institute for Healthcare Improvement: “The heart of improvement is not in controlling, it is in unleashing.” In the proceeding eight months much has happened – Dementia Carer Voices has received 17,000 personal pledges to make a difference, produced a report and I have moved within the ALLIANCE to Scotland’s House of Care programme– all the while I have been thinking a lot about this quote. For me, it really captures the work of Dementia Carer Voices, the House of Care and the ALLIANCE more broadly.

I was especially thinking about this quote when I went to hear my colleague, Tommy Whitelaw, speak at Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire on the 19 December. In my role with DCV I have heard Tommy speak at least half a dozen times, but it always moves me to hear about the compassion and commitment to quality care showed by the nurse he met when he was at his lowest. He asks the health professionals present to “Be like that nurse” and says they do the best, most important job ever invented – caring for people, day in, day out – getting up yesterday to care, getting up today to care, and getting up again tomorrow to provide invaluable care.

It always moves me – even though I’ve heard it many times, even though I know this story, I have read it, or versions of it, many times. I had the pleasure of putting together the report Dementia Carer Voices – Rights and the Carer Voice and when I was reading through the pledges from health and social care professionals I realised how much care and compassion there is out there in the profession. If it were possible to boil down the message of the health and social care professionals we spoke to one line it would be to emphasise the need to move away from a time and task approach to care and towards caring with care and compassion. The health and social care professionals often expressed frustration that systems got in the way of them fulfilling their pledges to show more care and compassion in the work they do. A typical pledge reads:

“I pledge to always treat people in my care as individuals and with respect and compassion, in spite of the time pressures of the ward environment”

This, to me, shows the kindness, compassion and warm-heartedness of the people in our health and social care profession.

I have now moved on to a new role within the ALLIANCE – I have become the Development Officer for House of Care. There is a great continuity in the work of Dementia Carer Voices and in the work of House of Care. An important part of House of Care is about emphasising the humanity of the people delivering care and support. The right hand wall of the House of Care model is ‘Health and Care Professional team committed to partnership working’. It struck me at this talk in Lanarkshire that a large part of what Dementia Carer Voices does, what House of Care does and what the ALLIANCE more broadly, seeks to do, is to unleash the care, compassion and kindness of those in the health and social care profession. It’s not about controlling, it’s about unleashing and ensuring that structures and processes don’t get in the way of this care and compassion.

The House of Care serves as a great model for what we do, not only in Dementia Carer Voices, but throughout the ALLIANCE. Without a strong right hand wall there, the house cannot stand and we cannot achieve person centred care and supported self management approaches, based on meaningful conversations. It comes back to the idea of what we do being about unleashing, not controlling. If Dementia Carer Voices, the House of Care and the ALLIANCE more broadly can unleash compassion, care and consideration in to every one of the human contacts in the health and social care system we will make our health and social care system better for all who engage with it and work within it.

Saturday, 9 December 2017

‘What Matters to You? launches summary report for 2017

What Matters to You? launches summary report looking back at What Matters to You? Day 2017.

The 2017 What Matters to You? Day (WMTY Day) took place on 6 June and was an opportunity to encourage and support more meaningful conversations and focus on the wants and needs of people receiving care and support. This year WMTY Day saw participation from over 1000 individuals and teams from across 30 countries set up ‘What Matters to You?’ activities in their local areas. What Matters to You? has now launched a summary report (This link will take you away from our website) of WMTY Day 2017.

Dementia Carer Voices UK Lead, Tommy Whitelaw, represents The ALLIANCE on the What matters to You? Steering Group and has been working with carers and people with long term conditions to find out what matters to them. Tommy has been working actively to promote the importance of meaningful conversations and the day itself at all of his events.

In June he interviewed Shona Robison MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport (This link will take you away fro our website), about what matters to her. Please take a moment to see all our WMTY case studies on the brand-new ALLIANCE website.

ALLIANCE Director, Irene Oldfather said,

“Dementia Carer Voices is delighted to be represented on the Steering Group of this meaningful project. What Matters to You? Day is a great opportunity to emphasise the importance of asking people what matters to them and encouraging person centred care. I urge everyone to read this summary report and Dementia Carer Voices looks forward to working with What Matters to You? in the future.”

Monday, 4 December 2017

16,000 People,Have Now Pledged To Make Difference. Every Person,Pledge HERE

we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made a pledge as part of the ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign and we are absolutely delighted to have received over 16,000 pledges!

This is a wonderful milestone to reach and would not be possible without the commitment and passion of everyone who attends our talks, reads about our campaign and pledges to make a difference to the lives of people with living with dementia and their carers.

The team have been taking the ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign to 650 talks to date, reaching over 95,000 staff and students throughout the UK to highlight that no matter what their role, everyone working in Health and Social Care Services has the potential to transform the lives and experiences of people with dementia and their carers, often in seemingly small ways.

You can read all the 16,000 pledges on our master pledge page and see our ‘You Can Make a Difference’case studies.

In June, Dementia Carer Voices launched its publication analysing 6,000 of the pledges we have received in the three years running the project. The key messages were around the importance of time in delivering compassionate care for health and social care staff and students.

If you have been inspired to make a pledge , please get in touch and email us your pledge at dementiacarervoices@alliance-scotland.org.uk. If you have made a pledge and want to share how you have made a difference and put a pledge do get in touch. Get inspiration on our ‘What Matters to You?’ case studies.

The campaign continues into 2017 and beyond – this autumn we will be visiting all universities offering nursing courses to share our important message.

Every Person Every Pledge Below

December

18/12/17 Wishaw General hospital tree of kindness and care