PATIENT HANDLING
Someone with dementia, for instance, may feel confused, vulnerable and distressed that the lived experience they were so accustomed to has been altered. That friendly smile, reassuring touch and time spent together has now been replaced by someone dressed in unfamiliar PPE and a mask trying to keep their distance. This is not sustainable care and certainly not meaningful. We need to understand we do not need to sacrifice the connections we have made to ensure safety – we can achieve both.
Ultimately, the principles of manual handling and people movement have not changed, and the principles of infection control have not changed either. What we don’t want to see, going forward, is care homes and other care environments turning into quasi-infectious disease units. Social care is not about providing care in a hospital; this is a home.
The physical elements of supporting care needs are not about to change. What will change is how we approach them. It’s about removing the fear factor and maintaining meaningful connections. In the case of manual handling, we can continue to manoeuvre and deep clean the surfaces and equipment around the person we are caring for, but let’s remember to involve them too. Let’s put into action: ‘nothing about me without me’. Eliminate the task element and create meaningful engagement.
For some people who are more advanced in their care needs and are unable to be involved physically, this does not mean they are unable to be involved in the process. Be creative, start a conversation, ask them what they used to clean their kitchen worktops with. Listen to the anecdotes and build on the connections that way. Even if the person isn’t physically cleaning with you, the engagement is still there and the ‘barrier’ between the person being cared for and the person applying the care is broken down. If the person is unable to speak, sing a song which incorporates the theme of what you are doing, the key is being engaged in a meaningful way and not seeing it as just a to-do task.
Overall, the meaningful occupation of engagement in social care is critical, even more so in the new world we are entering. With or without PPE, any manual handling and movement of people needs to be undertaken with a level of involvement and
Mary Kneale, Nurse Consultant of Meaningful Care Matters
“What we don’t want to see, going forward, is care homes and other care environments turning into quasi-infectious disease units. Social care is
not about providing care in a hospital; this is a home.”
engagement with the person we are supporting. It’s as simple as reintroducing the characteristics of living life and connecting in a way which is meaningful to the person we are supporting. You wouldn’t just enter someone’s house and start cleaning around them without engaging with them in a friendly, meaningful way. It’s the social conventions in a time of crisis that are oſten leſt by the wayside unintentionally, as people worry about completing tasks to ensure protection. We need to move away from this reactive phase to a phase of engagement, approaching meaningful connection from a moderated viewpoint.
Amanda Bewert, Managing Director of Meaningful Care Matters
twitter.com/TomorrowsCare
www.meaningfulcarematters.com - 27 -
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