Poor training of our care staff

Poor training of our care staff is leaving our vulnerable at risk, but what is the extent of the training gaps among care home staff and why do Care Providers forget about those working the “front lines”, and fail their own staff, reputations and our elderly?

Why do Care Providers think that by not properly training their care staff they are saving money when in reality they are failing to deliver safe care, which is ultimately affecting their all-important “bottom line”?

We know if people who are living with dementia are not supported in the appropriate way it can cause them additional confusion and distress. It impacts on their wellbeing and it may impact on their behaviour, which makes the jobs of people working in the service even harder because they are potentially dealing with a manifestation of that distress and confusion

Their costs soar because their staff are under stress from poor training and trying to achieve good care, undervalued through a lack of decent pay and not respected in their field of professionalism.

Most Care workers want to be delivering good safe care, most care workers work long hours to ensure that they are not failing our loved ones while putting their own needs and loved ones on the back burner.

Care staff are missing out on vital training in dementia care, safeguarding and the Mental Capacity Act.

Care Right Now and The Edith Ellen believe that together we can achieve outstanding care and practices by working towards a more robust training and recognition for Care Staff.  Yes, there are Carers who aren’t willing to “go the extra” but for the majority they are frustrated at the poor level of care they are delivering, they want to learn and they want to see safe care practices within their services.  They are working long hours to ensure the best care they can with limited resources, they are working at promoting an abuse free environment, with little to no recognition or appreciation from their own management teams.

Care Right Now and the Edith Ellen have found through their own experiences that Dementia care is particularly falling short, with even specialist dementia homes failing to provide training on the topic to their staff.  Safeguarding, the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (Dols) were the other most common gaps, the Edith Ellen is looking at rectifying this by providing sustainable training in these areas and beyond, that has identified the needs of the services, the users and the care givers.  We are also looking at launching a national database of Registered Care Givers, that will promote and celebrate care excellence enabling Care Givers to be recognised within their profession and receive the salary scale they should.

This will eradicate the lack of training that had resulted in safeguarding concerns not being reported, residents being unlawfully deprived of their liberty, and people with dementia being treated with no empathy or understanding of their care needs.

Where Dementia care has been a government priority for the last five years. In March 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron set a ‘national challenge’ to drive major improvements in care, research and awareness by 2015. More recently, the challenge has been extended to 2020.  What we need is for these changes to happen now beginning with the change to the way Service Providers Manage their own staff and Services. 

Thus, caring for older people in care homes and the community as they would like.