MENTAL HEALTH CARE
Keep On Enrolling
When dealing with complex conditions which affect the brain, it is crucial for care staff to have the right training under their belts. Nikki Owen, Business and Marketing Manager of Stroke Training at the Stroke Association, explains why its online course could be the missing link.
Stroke is a major issue for the care sector, much bigger than many people realise. It can happen very suddenly and a person’s needs might change literally overnight. Estimates on the proportion of stroke survivors in care homes range between 25% and 45%.
Older people are a group at particular risk as the chance of having a stroke doubles every decade after the age of 55. Knowing what to do when a stroke strikes can be the difference between life and death. Now, the Stroke Association has launched an e-learning tool to give people working in care the skills to understand this complex condition.
Care staff generally underestimate the number of stroke survivors in their care. We recently asked some training students how many stroke survivors they looked after. At the end of their course they were asked again and the number of stroke survivors had increased by 44% - not because there were more people having strokes in their care homes, but because they had not initially been identified as stroke survivors.
Stroke causes a greater range of disabilities than any other condition and the long term effects vary from person to person. The more obvious impacts include difficulty with walking, talking, speech, balance,
- 24 -
co-ordination, swallowing, bladder and bowel control. There are many more subtle changes that can easily go unrecognised without specialist understanding. For example vision problems affect 60% of stroke survivors but problems with memory, emotions, fatigue and spatial awareness are all common too.
Knowing what to do
when a stroke strikes can be the difference between life and death.
The QCF Level 2 Award in Stroke Awareness eLearning course covers what a stroke is and how to act in an emergency. A second unit is about acquired brain injury and the impact it can have on an individual. The qualification is available on the National Skills Academy for Social Care platform and awarded by NCFE.
Flexible learning ensures people are keeping their knowledge up to date, care is improved and staff feel engaged and supported. It can also be incorporated into more formal qualifications like the QCF Level 3 Certificate in Stroke Care Management in a blended learning approach including eLearning,
classroom sessions, distance learning and workplace assessment.
The first group to complete this Level 3 course in this way was Herefordshire Headway. Helen Mapp from Headway, said: “The course went really well and helped support us to work together and gel as a reablement team. We put a mixture of staff on the course including management, volunteers, receptionists and therapists. It was useful to break down the barriers and build a stronger team. We all learned something and are all now trained to level 3 and have a specialist shared knowledge base.
“This course is an essential part of the jigsaw to improve our service and deliver an effective enablement programme. As our team increases we would like to make sure that all our staff undertake this training and also we can make it available to more of our volunteers. I would recommend this qualification to everyone working in stroke to help work effectively with client groups.”
Our digital learning courses and qualifications are suitable for anyone working in the care industry. Find out more on our website:
www.stroke.org.uk/elearning
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56