Baby Bloggers & Mummy support The Edith Ellen Foundation a registered charity (No.1153733), we write independently of the foundation & our opinions are our own. Together, we believe in dignity and respect for the elderly and compassion in care. We hope together to provide valuable, inspirational dignity in care resources that address needs of isolation, emotional pain, grief and loss. We want to encourage you to be the best carers to older people that you can be.
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Friday, 19 January 2018
The Ethos Behind The Foundation's Kindness Audit
The Edith Ellen Foundation recently featured on the Professional Standards Authorities Viewpoint for their 2018 Winter Campaign
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Monday, 25 December 2017
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Social Care
Is it time to rethink our currently outdated culture of
Care?
As a former Nursing student and later a Business student I
am familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a theory in psychology that demonstrates
the theory of Human Motivation.
Maslow’s theory focuses on describing the basic motivational
stages of growth in humans, using the terms "physiological",
"safety", "belonging" and "love",
"esteem", and "self-actualisation".
Portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most
fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualisation and
self-transcendence at the top.
The belief is that as
humans we need to fulfil these basic needs to prevent us from feeling tense or
anxious.
This can be applied to Health and Social Care, Nurses/Healthcare Professionals can apply Maslow’s
hierarchy of basic needs in the assessment, planning, implementation, and
evaluation of patient care. It would help the nurse identify unmet needs as
they become health care needs, and allows the nurse to locate the patient on
the health-illness continuum and to incorporate the human dimensions and health
models into meeting needs.
The fulfilment of the lower level needs is essential to a
person’s health and well-being. This
principle encourages professionals across the scale to look beyond their
particular area of expertise; patients or clients will be evaluated in the
context of their physical health, their family and career situation, their
ability to communicate meaningfully with family members, and their ability to
work.
All basic human needs are interrelated and may require
nursing actions at more than one level at a given time. For example, in caring
for a person coming into A&E with a heart attack, the nurse’s immediate
concern in the patient’s physiologic needs (e.g., oxygen and pain relief). At
the same time, safety needs (e.g., for ensuring that the person does not fall
off the examining table) and love and belonging needs (e.g., for having a
family member nearby if possible) are still major considerations.
Physiologic
|
Breathing, circulation, temperature, intake of
food and fluids, elimination of wastes, movement.
|
Safety &
security
|
Housing, community, climate.
|
Love &
belonging
|
Relationships with others, communications with
others, support systems, being part of community, feeling loved by others.
|
Self-esteem
|
Hope, joy, curiosity, happiness, accepting Self.
|
Self-actualisation
|
Thinking, learning, decision making, values,
beliefs, fulfilment, helping others.
|
These can become the motivators,
but in addition if you deprive someone of any of these a deficiency of needs
will arise. This deficiency will
motivate people to act when they are unmet – if you deprive someone of their
liberty, their safety, their security, they and their loved ones will strive to
meet that need. Such needs will become stronger the
longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes
without food, the hungrier they will become.
Carers should be Valued
At the Edith Ellen Foundation, we
work tirelessly to ensure that those needing care are not isolated from
neighbours and friends.
We are increasingly becoming more and more aware of the
need to provide excellent and consistent care as people’s confidence in the Care
system falls.
In addition, we also appreciate that the Carer needs to be
appreciated, valued even.
Morale in the care sector is low.
The media tends to concentrate on stories of poor care – and of course these must be told. But this often means that we do not get to hear the marvellous stories of the many people who work in the care sector who show loving kindness to their clients every day and go the extra mile to support and care for their clients.
The media tends to concentrate on stories of poor care – and of course these must be told. But this often means that we do not get to hear the marvellous stories of the many people who work in the care sector who show loving kindness to their clients every day and go the extra mile to support and care for their clients.
The
vision for social care must not be lost through an inability or unwillingness
to pay a living wage which properly reflects the value of those whose job is to
care for the vulnerable.
The care sector is an area where employers are struggling
to pay the living wage for various reasons. I hoped that this was not because
of an unwillingness in principle, or a sense that the workers were not worth
higher salaries, but more and more it becomes clear that it is just about
profit. We know that the quality of care
will be better if people can be better paid.
These care workers are paid the minimum wage, and
many work unsocial hours so that 24-hour care can be provided 365 days a year.
Sometimes for the carer, it is simply not about the wage,
for the carer it is the basic need to be appreciated, valued, to reach self-actualisation, and to purely be thanked for
the work they do for whose work we are so thankful.
So, this Christmas, take time out to simply say “Thank You”
to a Carer.
#carer #social #thankyou
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
Can Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Help Dementia Patients?
Whilst
visiting my nana at the weekend, I saw that her motivation had gone and that
she seemed to be finding comfort in doing the same routine everyday – almost as
though she has intentionally isolated herself or even institutionalised
herself!
It made
me think about how I could support my nana better and I thought out cognitive
behaviour therapy.
However,
is there such as thing as cognitive behavioural therapy for people with
dementia?
With
Dementia and dementia related illnesses such as MCI, there is a large
proportion of patients suffering underlying issues such as anxiety and
depression, in fact there is an estimated 50% of patients experiencing some
symptoms of depression.
Depression
can decrease quality of life, worsen dementia symptoms and increase carer
stress. Anxiety is also common in people with dementia and has a
similarly negative impact. Therefore,
can Cognitive Behaviour Therapy help? And
if it can how would it need adapting to ensure the best possible outcome for
the patient?
What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy?
Cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT) is a widely used psychological therapy. It was
initially developed to treat depression in adults without dementia and can be
effective in treating both anxiety and depression.
I believe
that in its current
form it cannot be used to help people with dementia as it requires thinking and
memory abilities that may be affected by the condition. But that is just my opinion.
Adapting Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
There has been some research into adapting CBT to help
those with dementia, but this is still in the early stages.
Dr Stott has already undertaken some preliminary work on
this project, including consulting with experts in CBT and people affected by
dementia to determine the aims of the project.
Dr
Stott aims to better understand the skills that people with dementia need in
order to take part in CBT.
I
believe that once this study is completed then Dr Stott will conclude that CBT is feasible for people with mild to moderate dementia and
clinically significant anxiety.
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