MPs debate social care petition

Many of you will have signed the petition that circulated recently calling for social care to be given equal recognition to the NHS – yesterday Parliament debated the matter.

MPs from both sides of the House of Commons debated the petition, which has gathered more than 43,000 signatures, and many positive comments were made about the contribution of social care and care workers in particular during the pandemic.

Care Minister Helen Whately (left) wound up the debate by saying the government would be looking at how it could build a long-term solution for social care so that care workers get the rewards they deserve.

You can watch the full debate here.

 

Tracey’s fundraising bike ride

We never ceased to be surprised to the extra lengths that our wonderful front-line staff will go to in order to make the difference to their service users’ lives.

Tara Penn from ICCM wrote to us to tell us about the amazing effort that one of their PAs has been making to raise funds for an excellent cause.

Tracey Seabury, who has worked for ICCM since 2014, is cycling the equivalent distance of her home to Land’s End to help raise funds for her three-year-old client, a boy with severe epilepsy.

Tracey explains on her JustGiving page that the boy “will be totally dependent on others all his life and so his family need to adapt their home for his special needs.

“We were recently told that we could no longer carry him upstairs so the family are going to need to adapt their home. I am hoping to raise money towards a specialised bath that he will need to help make his life a little easier.”

Tracey has already raised over £7,000 of the £12,000 needed for the specialist equipment. If you’d like to lend your support, you can do so here. Well done, Tracey!

Your stories of kindness

We’ve had more great stories of kindness and gratitude this week from across the group.

Manager at Guardian in Morecambe, Samantha Mozer, got in touch to tell us about a “lovely gesture from a service user’s family”.

When the team began providing care to this particular lady, she had been diagnosed with coronavirus and had also recently lost her husband to the disease. Yet, in spite of the sad and difficult circumstances, care workers Sophie, Lorraine, Danuta and Michelle really rose to the occasion.

To show their gratitude, the family sent a gift package (right) to each of the care workers to say “thank you for being there through a very tough time”.

We were also deeply moved by news from Constance Care in Glenrothes, where manager Dominic Curran received correspondence in praise of the branch’s End of Life team from Dr Jo Bowden, Consultant in Palliative Medicine.

Dr Bowden noted how care workers Mary Hamilton and Kellyann Nicol had quickly “built a great and trusting rapport” with one particular young man on a palliative pathway, and that his mother “had valued their input right from the beginning”. In particular, she noted how the two staff had switched their shifts around in order to be present during her son’s final days of life.

“They supported her son’s comfort and dignity right to the end,” Dr Bowden said, “including giving him a wash, repositioning and emptying his stoma all in his last hours of life. This can’t have been easy.

“We all know how difficult it can be to facilitate continuity of care, but in this case it was achieved and it meant a great deal to the patient and his family. They were having the worst time of their lives with a lot of emotional distress and difficult physical symptoms, but having friendly, caring, sensitive and supportive input from your team made all the difference.”

Jane Jones, manager at Abacare in Powys, Wales, wrote to us recently to tell us how their local Morrisons supermarket made contact with the branch to make a donation of food and drink to their service users.

“As you can see,” wrote Jane, “it was a very generous donation and we are also going to receive another one next Tuesday from Morrisons. We are now busy making up baskets to give out.”

Field supervisor Kelly Butler is pictured here collecting the donation from Morrisons.