The Elder - April Edition (Home Instead Newsletter)

Home Instead York newsletter

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April 2021

Welcome to our New Training and Development Coordinator Home Instead York would like to say a huge welcome to Karen Leaf, who joined the team last month as our new Training & Development Coordinator.

In her role, Karen will be responsible for the training journey of all Home Instead staff from their initial introduction training through to continued specialist development.

Karen will be the main port of call for all CAREGiver training requests and will have regular contact with staff about completing

of any mandatory training requirements.

Coming from a background of working in health and social care, teaching, and working with the elderly we feel Karen is a real asset to the Home Instead York team and we look forward to having her fully settled into her new role.

We hope you will join us in making Karen feel as welcome as possible.

Welcome Karen!

Get out into your garden!

You may have seen our advert on ITV sponsoring Love Your Garden recently.

To celebrate, and encourage you to get out into your garden, we have enclosed in with every printed copy of this month’s edition of The Elder, some sunflower seeds for you to plant.

Why not get your CAREGiver involved? We’d love to see some photos of you both planting the seeds, and any growth pictures of the flowers!

Who knows, maybe we could have a sunflower competition amongst our all our clients!

Send any photos to info@hiscyork.co.uk

Growing Tips

10cm space between each seed.

3. Place the seed in carefully, cover them up with soil and water the seeds gently. As they grow, if the plants are crowded, thin them out to about 45cm apart leaving the strongest, tallest plants.

4. Be careful, as slugs and snails like to eat the new shoots. You may like to protect the seedlings by cutting the top off a plastic bottle and placing it over your seedlings.

5. As your sunflower begins to grow taller, you will need to help support the stem, by placing a cane near the stem and loosely tying the cane to the plant with string.

6. Watch your sunflower grow and grow and remember to send us your photos along the way!

Growing conditions Sunflowers like to grow in full sun in well drained soil.

When to grow Sunflowers are mainly sown

from mid-April to the end of May. They are an annual plant and will flower in August.

How to grow 1. Sunflowers can be sown straight in to the ground where they are going to flower, so make sure the space you are going to sow is weed free, by using a trowel to remove the weeds.

2. Rake the soil to a fine tilth (a fine crumbly texture) and make some drills 12mm deep. Leave a

Photo by Aleksandr Eremin on Unsplash

Continuing Healthcare means FREE care

How does it work?

1. What exactly is Continuing Healthcare (CHC)?

If you are receiving care at home or in a care home and you are assessed as having ‘a primary health need’, as opposed to a purely social care need, you will be eligible for CHC funding, and you will not have to pay a penny. All costs, including accommodation, will be paid by the NHS. For most people having care, their only need is ‘personal’ or ‘social’ care, so CHC funding is clearly not going to be applicable. Here the cost is borne either privately or by the Local Authority – depending on the outcome of a means-testing assessment. But where needs are more complex, there is an established process in place for assessing CHC eligibility.

‘Most people do not know they are eligible for funding, so never apply in the first place.’

Relatives and Residents Association. 2020

2. How do you get it?

This is where it gets complicated, mainly because the criteria used to judge whether an individual’s needs are classifiable as ‘primarily health related’ are open to considerable interpretation, with wide variations across different parts of the country. Also, in theory, the authorities are supposed to trigger assessments for anyone deemed likely or possible to qualify for CHC, but unfortunately this is often not the case, meaning that it is left to the individual (or family members) to set the ball rolling.

The assessment process itself comprises two separate stages. The first one is called ‘The Checklist’, and if this is passed, you move onto a comprehensive ‘Full Assessment’ stage, after which a decision is made.

4. Full Assessment The final stage of assessment is carried out by a MultiDisciplinary Team (MDT), which must consist of at least two people, one Healthcare professional and one Social Services professional. The individual’s family representative should also be invited to attend. Each of the 11 domains is assessed in detail, using the Decision Support Tool, and the family member(s) attending encouraged to contribute to the discussion.

Within a week or so, you will receive a letter informing you of the decision, which will have been approved, or otherwise, by the local Clinical Commissioning Group. You can also ask to be sent a full report.

‘Many thousands of people

living in the UK are being wrongly denied CHC funding every year.’ thisismoney.com. December 2020

5. What next?

If you are successful, it is important to be aware that the authorities can, and frequently do, review the condition of the individual on a regular basis, and can (and do) reverse their decision and remove funding some months down the line, if appropriate.

If you are unsuccessful, and are in any way dissatisfied with the outcome, there are two stages of appeal you can use to try to reverse the decision.

‘It is estimated that over £100 million a year is successfully being recovered retrospectively by families with regard to CHC claims.’

Express. September 2019

3. The Checklist The Checklist assessment, which is carried out by a health or social care professional, is the first step in the process, and is designed to help quickly decide whether an individual should proceed through to a full assessment.

It covers 11 areas of care (called domains), such as drug therapies, behaviour, mobility and breathing, which are rated high, moderate, low or nil by the assessor. If a sufficient number of Highs or Moderates are obtained, a Full Assessment is triggered. It is quite common for an individual to pass the Checklist criteria, but far less so the Full Assessment stage.

www.oxmoorcareconsultancy.com

Our Recommended App Of The Month There is an abundance of health and care apps available.

That is why it’s difficult to know what you should use to boost your own wellbeing.

Home Instead are delighted to have teamed up with ORCHA (the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications) to give you access to the best health and care apps, and ensure that you’re only

informed by credible and reputable sources.

Every month we will be letting you know about a great ORCHA recommended app which we have made our ‘App of the Month’.

App of the Month Our April ‘App of the Month’ is:

Hedia Karen Celebrates 5 Years Service Our Deputy General Manager Karen celebrated 5 years with Home Instead York in February and got her hands on a gold service badge!

Karen originally joined the team as a Recruiter, but in 2019 took up the position of Deputy General Manager, where she is responsible for the recruitment of CAREGivers, as well as playing a key role in the day to day running of the office team and helping to take the business forward towards achieving a second CQC ‘Outstanding’ rating.

Congratulations Karen!

Thank you for all your hard work over the years!

Personal Diabetes App Developer description: Hedia diabetes app helps you towards a more stable blood sugar level and a life of fewer worries.

Get your personal diabetes tracker and logbook! - all for free!

With Hedia you can: • Assess the amount of carbs in your meals quick and easy.

• Get accurate insulin dosage recommendations.

• Track your blood sugar levels, time in range, exercise, and carb intake.

• Get fun & motivating reminders when you need to regulate your blood sugar.

• Declutter your mind from all your worries.

Parkinson’s Awareness Month April is Parkinson’s Awareness month, so we thought we would share some useful facts about Parkinson’s.

What is Parkinson’s?

What causes Parkinson’s?

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition. This means that it causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time.

Around 145,000 people live with Parkinson’s in the UK. And it’s the fastest growing neurological condition in the world.

People with Parkinson’s don’t have enough of the chemical dopamine because some of the nerve cells that make it have died.

We don’t yet know exactly why people get Parkinson’s, but researchers think it’s a combination of age, genetic and environmental factors that cause the dopamine-producing nerve cells to die.

THREE THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT PARKINSON’S:

1 2 3

Parkinson’s develops when cells in the brain stop working properly and are lost over time. These brain cells produce a chemical called dopamine.

Symptoms start to appear when the brain can’t make enough dopamine to control movement properly.

There are 3 main symptoms - tremor (shaking), slowness of movement and rigidity (muscle stiffness) - but there are many other symptoms too.

How does Parkinson’s progress?

Parkinson’s affects everyone differently.

The symptoms someone might have and how quickly the condition develops will differ from one person to the next.

For many people, the condition can take years to progress to a point where it has a real impact on daily life.

How do symptoms progress?

The most common symptoms of Parkinson’s are tremor, rigidity (stiffness) and slowness of movement.

Not everyone with Parkinson’s experiences the same combination of symptoms – they vary from person to person.

Also, how Parkinson’s affects someone can change from day to day, and even from hour to hour. Symptoms that may be noticeable one day may not be a problem the next.

Many of the symptoms can be treated or managed with medication and therapies.

Many people with Parkinson’s lead active and fulfilling lives. An important part of coping with Parkinson’s is understanding how it affects you and how to work around it.

It may not always be easy to maintain a positive outlook, especially immediately after diagnosis. But at www.parkinsons.org.uk you can find help and support you need.

Source: www.parkinsons.org.uk

Home Instead 10 Clifton Moor Business Village James Nicolson Link, Clifton Moor York YO30 4XG Telephone: 01904 690884 Email: info@hiscyork.co.uk Web: www.homeinstead.co.uk/york

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