Di Galpin. The Safeguards 5: Financial abuse - The Care Guy's blog. Join a new Twitter chat group | Community Catalysts. When it comes to care and support services Community Catalysts are passionate about diversity and the need for the people who use them to have a real choice. We work all over the UK to support people and community groups to help them to set up and sustain small, high quality, local care and support services able to offer the kind of flexible, personal help that people need.
We have been inspired time and time again by the people we work with, their passion, enthusiasm and tenacity and we LOVE the quirky, and imaginative services that they offer. We recognise the huge barriers these entrepreneurs and community groups face to get their service on a sustainable footing and we help where we can to minimise these barriers. We call these inspirational people micro social care and support enterprises but recognise this is a bit of a mouthful so often revert to ‘micro enterprises’ or ‘micro providers’ for ease.
Scientists Unveil a Bold New Definition of Addiction. In the growing public debate over the revision of psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual—the DSM V, which categorizes mental illness and is used to determine insurance coverage and research agendas—addiction has been given little attention. But the upcoming update—a decade in the making and due out in May 2013—will significantly change the way addiction is medically defined: in one way that I believe will advance addiction science and pain treatment and another that could wrongly pathologize a whole new group of people. Autistic people and parents of autistic children, who fear that the removal of Asperger’s Syndrome from the manual will result in denial of needed services and widespread underdiagnosis of autism, are raising a huge ruckus. From the opposite direction, those concerned with the overuse of antipsychotic medication oppose the proposed addition of a new diagnosis, or "prediagnosis," for people identified as at high risk of developing schizophrenia.
Dr. Guest Blog – Four things you never knew about social care ? | Age UK Blog. This guest blog was contributed by Richard Humphries, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund. Richard joined The King’s Fund in March 2009 to lead on social care. His professional background is social work, having worked in a variety of roles including Director of Social Services and Health Authority Chief Executive (the first combined post in England). Age UK’s new report – Care in Crisis 2012– is the latest clarion call to sort out a care system which even Government ministers accept is broken.
The report sets Richard Humphries out in stark detail just how many people are going without the care they need. Here are four things you may not know about England’s social care system. Second, if you have savings or assets of more than £23,250, you will be entirely responsible for the full cost of residential care, a cliff-edge so steep it makes Beachy Head look like a gentle slope. The Age UK report sets out seven major building blocks for change including quality, safety and dignity in care.
Blind man's care funding case raises profound issues, supreme court told | Society. A blind man's care funding battle with a local authority raises "important and profound" issues for disabled people, the supreme court has been told. Charities said judges were being asked to clarify whether local authorities should base funding decisions on patient need or budget limitation. The 26-year-old man, who can be referred to only as KM, went to the supreme court after losing cases against Cambridgeshire county council in the high court and court of appeal.
A panel of seven supreme court justices was told at the hearing in London that KM lived at home with his family and had a range of serious physical and mental disabilities. He had been blind from birth, had learning difficulties and a "constellation" of other problems that meant that he needed constant care, the court heard. Ian Wise QC, for KM, said: "The case raises important and profound issues for KM and other disabled people like him who are dependant upon local authority support to meet their needs.
" Case details - The Supreme Court. The importance of physiology - The Care Guy's blog. Crowdsourced twitter stories. At lunchtime today we had a meeting at work to discuss social media, with a particular focus on twitter. I met with a few colleagues in December and showed them how to use twitter, I wrote a post about it here and at the time asked people for their advice, which I had intended to write up in another post. Life took over and I never wrote the post, so today I asked the twittersphere some further questions (see above) and the responses are as follows. What’s the point of twitter? > What’s the point of talking?
– @MartinHowitt > What’s the point of talking, what’s the point of having a view and expressing it? > Point of twitter, from the opinion of a young person: What would you never do? > Game follower numbers - @MartinHowitt What twitter mistake do you most regret? > Using the wrong account – @Phillirose > Getting into pointless debates - @MartinHowitt What’s your favourite twitter success/outcome? > Meeting great tweeps offline. A cap on care costs is the only answer for our troubled sector | Social care network | Guardian Professional. As the publication of the much-anticipated social care white paper draws closer, it seems we're still far from clear on what exactly we want a new funding system to look like. Earlier this month, it was reported that there is disagreement about the level at which a cap on care costs should be set; Andrew Dilnot originally suggested £35,000, but a working group has proposed that it should be more like £60,000. It hasn't been confirmed whether the cap will include so-called hotel costs – the ongoing costs for food, heating, etc – and how much this is likely to amount to.
Some say it will be just £6,000 a year, but in my experience the true amount is likely to be far more. There is also ongoing debate about third party contributions, and whether family members will be required to contribute to older people's care, not to mention a lack of recognition of the actual cost of care, which is far higher than the amount local authorities are currently prepared to pay. Care Services Minister denies any crisis of funding. Have you heard the one about the Care Services Minister so convinced by the truthfulness of his own political mantra that he began to believe that everything he said was true? It’s the Paul Burstow story.
Paul Burstow, has told the Commons health select committee that the Government had taken sufficient steps to ensure that a funding shortfall inherited by the coalition had been closed. “There is no gap in the current spending review period on the basis of the money that we are putting in plus efficiency gains through local authorities redesigning services,” the minister said. If councils failed to pass on the money or to make efficiency gains, that was their choice, he said.
Anyone who has worked in social care, who has sat alongside the old, disabled, those with addictions – in fact anyone who has woken up sand smelt the reality coffee – knows and can testify that Burstow is a man deluded at best, dangerously naïve and complacent at worse. Dr Donald Macaskill Source: The Guardian. Social worker's new play opens next week - Culture Vulture.
A dramatic new play about social work opens next week at the Soho Theatre in central London. Shallow slumber, written by award-winning writer and social worker Chris Lee (pictured right), takes a look at the relationship between a mother and her social worker. As it unfolds, the story illustrates the dilemmas faced by social workers when working with clients. This is Lee’s first play to tackle issues from his daily life as social worker in Camden, north London. Speaking to the arts website Spoonfed about his play, Lee said: “There are questions asked about the boundary between professionalism, and over involvement, between therapeutic relationship and friendship”. “For social workers, they can fail if they intervene and they can fail if they don’t intervene. Post show talk Following the performance on Tuesday 14 February there will be a discussion about contemporary social work and the issues raised by the play.
Shallow Slumber is at the Soho Theatre from 24 January to 18 February. NICE opens up access to The Lancet. NHS and social care staff in England now have open access to the online version of The Lancet, thanks to an agreement between NICE and Elsevier to fund a national subscription. The move will save the NHS time and money as NHS organisations, and individual members of staff, will no longer need to take out their own subscriptions to the online and paper versions of The Lancet Founded in 1823, The Lancet is one of the oldest and most respected medical journals in the world.
This three-year agreement will provide all NHS staff who have an Athens password access to the latest copies of The Lancet, as well as back copies from the last four years, through NHS Evidence - the online service provided by NICE. Healthcare students following an NHS-commissioned education programme which involves practice and placement within the NHS across England will also have access under the agreement.
Social care staff who meet the eligibility criteria will also be able to access The Lancet. All I want for Christmas.... is better care for the elderly. As usual, many people will have ignored the blizzard of pleas, posters and tweets promoting the virtues of self-care and urging us to visit A&E only for serious illness and emergencies. The pressures on emergency and urgent care are real enough, but they are just the tip of a much bigger iceberg. Beyond the frantic portal of A&E, most acute beds will be occupied by older people, many of whom end up in hospital not because it's the right place for their needs, but because it's the only place they have in the absence of family and community support or alternative clinical options.
And as our latest data briefing shows, once admitted, they are likely to stay in hospital for much longer than may be clinically necessary, at substantial cost in human and financial terms: while only 10 per cent of patients admitted as emergencies stay for longer than two weeks, they account for 55 per cent of overall bed days – and 80 per cent of them are patients over 65.
NHS whistleblowing helpline to be extended to social care | Social care network | Guardian Professional. The whistleblowing helpline for NHS staff is to be extended to staff and employers in the social care sector from 1 January, the Department of Health has announced. Professionals from both health and social care will now be able to contact the helpline if they have concerns but are unsure about how to raise them or simply want advice on best practice. The service, which is currently funded by the government, will also become a freephone service provided by the Royal Mencap Society. A web-based service is also being developed. The announcement comes after concerns were raised about healthcare professionals being gagged by managers from reporting malpractice. The announcement, which suggests social care staff are now part this pledge, was welcomed by Cynthia Bower, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission.
"Health and care professionals have a responsibility to raise concerns if they believe that patients or people who use services are being put at risk," she said. Connecting. The title of this blog is ‘Connecting Social Care and Social Media’ and this post by the excellent Mental Health Cop reminded me of the importance of the very first word, ‘connecting’. What is it that needs to be connected or more importantly who is it that needs to be connected?
This, for me, is one of the key factors in my continued use of social media outlets. What is the appeal of the social over the mainstream? It’s the connections that we make. As someone who has been working in social care for more years than I’d like to relate, I can see tangibly how these connections have improved my own practice and how they have the potential to change the landscape in social care (as well as other areas) for many years to come. We are on the precipice of changing paradigms of communication and it is exciting but it’s important that we remember it that the goal is ‘connecting’ not talking. Who do we connect with? We begin to connect with each other. How do we connect? Why do we connect? Like this: Care homes are not analogous to hotels | Social care network | Guardian Professional. The government's 'trip adviser' model of proposing ratings and comments for care and nursing homes is an attempt to provide regulation on-the-cheap.
The major concern is that the hotel-like ratings proposals won't be overseen by the actual regulatory body – the Care Quality Commission. Open and accessible information for those choosing care homes is good. However, there are some real and obvious differences that need to be highlighted between the choices that are available to those who are picking hotels in New York and those choosing care homes for gran in Wallsend. These proposals came from user-led discussion groups and stipulate that local "scrutiny" teams would be able to visit care homes and report back on them – and these would involve family members and service users. As someone who has long felt that independent lay visitors could provide a further safeguard, I welcome that development. Confidentiality is another issue. The CQC used to have a star rating system.
Leadership & Clarity Please. Searching of young people in schools and children’s homes or other similar settings, particularly if it involves confiscation, is a controversial issue. Teachers/Care staff have been crying out for clear guidance for years, some have been calling for changes in the law. However, the law doesn’t need to be changed. What’s required is for government and, particularly, schools and children’s homes managers to provide clear direction and clarity for their staff and young people/pupils. Lack of leadership and clarity leaves staff feeling vulnerable and this results in them either sticking their heads in the sand or acting by instinct, which can lead to poor or inappropriate actions, complaints and worse.
The bottom line is that staff can search young people/pupils if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that harmful items are being carried. Harmful items INCLUDE knives, alcohol or stolen items; that’s obvious. Searches are permissible, in some circumstances, without consent. What happens if a big care provider fails? | Social care network | Guardian Professional. One lesson to emerge from Southern Cross is the need for better clarity in the roles of providers, commissioners, regulators and central government. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA What happens if a big care provider fails? Reverberations from the demise of Southern Cross continue, with the latest report from Commons public accounts committee taking the government to task for not monitoring market developments or having clear arrangements to ensure that residents' care is not jeopardised. With widespread public concern about the incursion of private equity into the care home market and the sheer scale of the Southern Cross operation – 31,000 people in 750 homes – no wonder anxieties are running high.
Social care does seem to have sleepwalked into a situation where over 80% of care is provided by independent providers without necessarily thinking through the implications when things go wrong on this scale. Delivering personalisation in health and social care – An interview with Helen Sanderson and Jaimee Lewis « JKP blog. Social work and the recession – a lost generation of social workers? – By Nushra Mansuri. Social Work Employment in a Time of Austerity – By Ermintrude2. Social Work and Social Care Employment in Times of Austerity. Twitter is a great resource in social care | Social care network | Guardian Professional. Live discussion: Reading the Riots and social care | Social care network | Guardian Professional. Evaluation of the extra care housing initiative - Resource library - Topics & Resources - Housing LIN.
CareAdvisor. Towards Inclusivity in User Led Organisations. 2 December: workshop 4 | Caring for our future. National Audit Office CQC Report. Use and Application of Social Media in Social Work and Social Care Education. | Blog | Introducing Casserole. Whocareswalsall - Monday 21 November 2011 · walsallwebfocus. Social Work / Social Care and Media. Reinventing the wheel - 152 times - Uncil's social care cuts are unlawful, high court rules | Society.
Will personal budgets be the norm in five years’ time? Seminar report | OPM blog. Trusts reveal staff abuse of social media | Healthcare Network | Guardian Professional. Bristol barber sentenced for shaving 'fool' on customer. Chat transcript for Tuesday, 1st November 2011 (Social care) Developing Leadership in Social Work and Social Care. What are your #socialcare information needs? ‘Social workers will inevitably also get the blame’ - Culture Vulture. Social work resources. Research and Development Officer: Resource Development and Utilisation - Dartington Hall Trust. Running a #socialcare event? Share your # with @cscsm. RCGP Conference 2011: Dr Clare Gerada's Speech - full transcript. Reflections on #NCASC – let’s start with people. The difference between management and leadership. Newsletter-Oct-2011-Final. #1 Love Life and Work. Live online debate: Does higher education prepare social workers for employment? | Social care network | Guardian Professional.
Chaîne de SocialCareTV. Barber secretly shaved 'fool' on back of man's head, court told | UK news. 'Abuse' of Bristol man with Alzheimer's is caught on spy camera. Human Thinking Together. Children & Young People Now | Latest news, jobs and best practice. The Social Issue | people, places and projects. Mmunity Care | Social Work News & Social Care Jobs. How do you measure the relationship between a social worker and a child? - 10/13/2011. Social care network. Social life blog: Why social work beats lifestyle management | Social care network | Guardian Professional. SocietyGuardian - news, comment and analysis on the public and voluntary sectors | Society. The 'big society' Work Programme (and other myths) | Society. Ripfa.org. United Response » Blog Archive » Kaliya Franklin and United Response collaborate on Labour conference easy read doc.
The Broken Of Britain. Social Justice. Infographic: How the Top 50 Nonprofits Do Social Media.