Scottish Care Conference 2018

Had a very informative day here at the Scottish Care conference in Glasgow!

Dr Donald Macaskill opened with a very real discussion on the key challenges that we face in the home care sector. 12 challenges, 12 solutions, 12 months!

Followed by a very interesting presentation by Dr Andrew MacKay (GP and ACP lead for Edinburgh) on reshaping health and care in the community. 

Check out this film A Day in the Life of Home Care at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTv53IhSwKk to see what homecare is all about.

I chose my first insight session on Palliative and end of life care at home. Elaine Rae from Scottish Care and Jane Miller from The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice discussed the importance of supporting frontline workers. Certainly gave me food for thought on how my company trains and supports our staff on Grief and Loss. 

I rushed my lunch and started working my way round all the stalls collecting information on the various companies and charities that had set up for the day. My bag was heavy with leaflets by the end. Even managed to fit in some freebies (including a mini bottle of gin from the wonderful women at Strategic Thinking, who provide our e-learning).

Then it was time for the second insight session of the day - SSSC Registration and how to make it work for you. Was a good chance to see the difficulties companies were facing with having to get all staff registered with the SSSC. It was good to see we're not the only ones in this boat and the women running the session handled all our questions and feedback very well.

Back down to the main hall for a wonderful film clip: Norma's story. This was a positive example of Self Directed Support and how it has made a huge impact on the quality of Norma's life. It can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/252719534

Next Edith Macintosh spoke about the CAPA project (Care About Physical Activity). This is an initiative that is being commissioned by the Care Inspectorate. The CAPA team will build on the skills, knowledge and confidence of social care staff to enable those they care for to increase their levels of physical activity and move more often. I made sure to grab as much information I could on this as it's something I would like to introduce to our staff and service users!

Excellent day overall. And to top it off, I won a £50 Amazon Voucher for visiting every stall at the conference.