Title

The Department of Health has launched a document addressing end-of-life care, and wants council managers to get on board, as Petra Barnby reports. It has been estimated that in the UK, 2.5 million care staff come into contact with people who are approaching the end of their lives. And yet most of these people lack the basic skills needed to cope in this delicate area of expertise. In fact, there is no statutory obligation for non-palliative social care staff to receive any sort of special training. In an effort to address the problem, last year, the Government launched the National End of Life Care Strategy. As part of the campaign, the Department of Health (DoH) commissioned the Skills for Health and Skills for Care organisations to lay down the requirements of staff in a document called Core competences for end of life care. When people approach the end of their lives, staff must be equipped to shift from cure, increasing independence and future planning to managing symptoms and concerns and ensuring that the individual and their family and friends are able to spend time in a way that is meaningful and positive. The DoH is keen for all council staff who deal with people as they reach the end of their lives to know what to do. The document says: ‘There are very few working across health and social care, and other sectors, such as the police and housing services, who will not, at some time, interact with the stages of the end-of-life care pathway.' Christina Pond, director of standards and qualifications at Skills for Health, says: ‘These competences and principles should be of interest to a wide group of staff, whether they are providing or commissioning care. ‘They will also help education providers to offer appropriate learning and development. ‘The national strategy emphasised that the quality of end-of-life care we deliver depends on the skills, knowledge and attitudes of many staff – not just the few thousand working directly in palliative care.' The document sets out what are seen to be the four, main, weak areas in staff dealing with end of life care. They are: * communication * assessment and care planning * symptom management * advance care planning. To save on money and time, council managers may be able to build end-of-life care instruction into the training they currently provide in communication skills, for example. Claire Henry is programme director of the National End of Life Care Programme. She says: ‘Council managers should look at what training they already offer. It is challenging, but there may be some way of building end-of-life care into what one already provides. Councils can simply enhance what they have already got.' She adds: ‘This is about a council's workforce. This has come from the practitioners themselves. They want this training. ‘If a social carer hasn't come across someone approaching the end of their lives in their personal life, they often don't know what to say, or say the wrong things. It is important people have these skills because it is a scary area.' If a council cannot afford to train everyone, it might train one or two people so other, unqualified staff can refer patients to them. As part of the same work to improve end-of-life care, the DoH is also launching e-learning resources next January, and a communication skills programme will be available later in 2010. To download a copy of the document and find out more information on the National End of Life Care Programme, visit www.endoflifecareforadults.nhs.uk. You can also order copies by e-mailing information@eolc.nhs.uk . The document can be used for the following: * creating job descriptions and defining new roles * to ensure the right skills and competences are being offered through council's adult social care contracts * as a tool, when redesigning services to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to care delivery * as a checklist for HR managers when designing curriculum for training * to support workers' continuing personal/professional development.

Title

A new beginning at the end

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING