How Care Vision Supports People Working In End-Of-Life Care?

How Care Vision Supports People Working In End-Of-Life Care

How Care Vision Supports People Working In End-Of-Life Care?

Care home residents who are nearing the end of their life will require highly specialist healthcare and wellbeing support, both on a physical and emotional level. As a result, care staff who work in this area also need a plethora of support, resources and training to help them give professional, compassionate service during their resident or patient’s final months, weeks or days. Being able to rely on care planning systems to support them in this vital work is a key way to ensure that people working in this sensitive area can give their best without compromising their own wellbeing and mental health.

What does end of life care involve?

End of life care can also be known as palliative care. It involves looking after someone with a life-limiting or terminal illness to help make their final weeks, months or days of life as comfortable and dignified as possible. It’s not about trying to cure someone from an illness or health condition, nor put them through invasive or extensive treatment in a bid to prolong life beyond what their current condition would allow.

End of life care should be focused on the person and their needs, with flexibility built in to account for changes in their condition and personal wishes. It requires a wider team to support physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and psychological needs. This is where Care Vision can be a huge benefit to everyone involved. Its multi-faceted approach, as well as the ability to access key information and resources 24/7 allows end of life care teams to remain agile and responsive.

Helpful tools and features to support palliative care workers

Having immediate access to a suite of helpful resources and tools can make all the difference when carrying out end of life care in a residential care home, domestic setting, hospice or hospital. Physical healthcare can be supported by emergency tools, such as Nurse Call, which enables residents or their visitors or carers to summon immediate emergency help, 24/7. GP Connect is another helpful feature, which identifies residents by their unique NHS number and shares key information confidentially and immediately to ensure informed, effective care.

The system’s hospital transfer feature eases the transition of a resident in need of external hospital or hospice support to be transferred with their key data and updates in place, again to ensure accurate, appropriate care. The personal record function allows important updates to be added around DNR instructions, end of life wishes, power of attorney arrangement and key people to inform in the event of worsening health or imminent end of life. All of this offers support to carers and reassurance to residents and their loved ones at a difficult time.

Finding meaningful connections

As well as practical help and emergency support, people working in end of life care should be empowered to offer meaningful connections and ways to help those nearing the end to feel as fulfilled, comfortable and loved as possible. For many people, this means spending time with them, enabling access to their loved ones and supporting them in enjoying hobbies, music, films and similar. Even if people are unable to participate in previously enjoyed past times, or are too unwell or too tired to join in with many activities, deeper connections can still be made. For example, the Namaste Care programme works with people living with dementia to provide them with loving, meaningful interactions, contact and touch.

Even when close to the end of life, many people with dementia can still feel comfort and take pleasure from loving, unhurried contact. In fact, many aspects of the calm, personalised approach displayed by the Namaste Care programme can be hugely reassuring and effective for anyone nearing the end of their life, as well as their loved ones. Feeling like an individual, with unique needs, likes and preferences brings dignity, calm and reassurance to a person’s final days. It can also help preserve positive memories of that person for their friends and family so they can remember them as the person they loved and cherished, right to the very end. More information about the Namaste Care programme and its approach to loving, end of life care can be found online at www.namastecare.com.