Diabetes: Action needed this World Health Day

The World Health Organisation was set up on April 7^th 1948. Every year since 1950, its anniversary is celebrated with ‘World Health Day’- the focus this year is on Diabetes.

What is Diabetes?

A lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high. Of the two types, around 90% of all adults affected have type 2.

Type 1 is a chronic condition where the pancreas does not produce enough, if any insulin by itself.

Type 2 is usually found in adults and occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin, or doesn’t make enough.

In 1996 there were 1.4 million people living with the condition in the UK, but this is dramatically rising with an estimated figure of 5 million by 2025. Across the globe, there are currently 422 million adults affected- an alarming figure. This increase is why World Health Day is all about raising awareness of Diabetes this year. More than one in 16 people are now living with the condition in the UK.

If left untreated, Diabetes becomes progressively worse.

It is vital that you are diagnosed as early as possible.

Diabetes can lead to heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and even lower limb amputation. A key finding in the global report on diabetes carried out by the World Health Organisation is that the condition was the cause of 1.5million deaths in 2012. Many of these deaths were before the age of 70, and of those with type 2, they are largely preventable through healthy lifestyles.

If you or someone you know wants to understand Diabetes type 1 and type 2, the symptoms, causes and the treatments, we have an online training course ‘Supporting People with Diabetes Mellitus’. This course aims to raise awareness about the condition, help learners to understand the implications, and enable them to provide people with the support and guidance that they need.

Visit our website embrace-learning to see our catalogue of online courses on a wide range of Health and Social care topics or call us on 0161 928 9987 for more information.

If you want to get involved and help raise awareness of Diabetes this World Health Day, visit the World Health Organisation website to see how you can help.

View our other recent blogs here.

How would a BREXIT affect Health and Social Care in the UK?

“The British people will not be dictated to by others”. According to the German Finance Minister, leaving the EU would be ‘poison’ for the UK, European and global economies that would last for years.

The Guardians’ first live debate on the EU referendum that took place on the 15^th March recorded more cheers for BREXIT than it did for BREMAIN. But there is still a significant amount of people who don’t know which way to vote. The most recent poll from the Telegraph however shows a different result, with 49% of voters opting to leave the EU.

 Lynton Crosby believes that voters can see risk on both sides:

The risk of leaving is the damage that could be caused to the UK economy. The risk of staying is the uncontrolled immigration that could result. More than 3 quarters of the remain voters actually expect that the UK will stay in the EU, including nearly a quarter who are not likely to vote, but still expect the rest of the UK will vote to remain.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said ‘staying in the EU would drag Britain into a political union with turkey’ leading to 77 million even poorer people entering the country. But would this actually happen?

On the other hand, former minister Nick Herbert warned that leaving the EU would put investment at risk, undermine policing and security and jeopardise access to European markets. The key long term challenge of how to deliver health and social care with an ageing population would not suddenly be solved by the UK leaving the EU.

Education secretary Nicky Morgan worries that young brits could find themselves cut off from the world. If we were to leave the EU their prospects would be limited and opportunities would end at our shores.

What effect will a BREXIT have on health and social care?

When it comes to health and social care, there are many concerns surrounding the referendum. The Guardian has reported fears that a BREXIT could undermine the rights of the 10 million people in Britain who are currently living with a disability.

The article goes on to say treatments have been developed through European research, for diseases so rare that no one country could have done it alone, highlighting the benefits of being a part of the EU.

Brits can currently visit any country within the EU and be guaranteed the same health services at the same cost to a local. What will happen to healthcare if we were no longer in the EU? Would we be charged a premium? Would we still be able to use the European Health Insurance Card (Ehic)?

BREXIT and the disabled

The Disability News Service has recently published an article: More disabled people have come forward to argue that a decision to quit the European Union (EU) would harm disability rights in the UK. In 2015, 87,000 British people with a disability were helped towards employment by European Social Funding.

Former government adviser Miro Griffiths believes that a BREXIT would have ‘dire consequences for disabled people’.  At the moment, millions of Euros are spent on combating poverty, supporting independent living and challenging injustice in the UK through the European Social Fund.

Debbie Jolly wrote in her blog ‘disabled people and European non-governmental organisations are the ones that fight for disability rights, but being in the EU can help extend those rights and help to fund our battles’. She goes on to say, other countries too have significant battles and a BREXIT would mean ‘rejecting our disabled European friends and significantly weakening our own fight too’.

Many Personal Assistants and other care workers in the UK are from other parts of the EU and there is a risk that a BREXIT would see the value of the pound fall, making it far less profitable for them to stay working here and sending money back to their families in other countries.

So what should we do?

There are so many arguments both for and against a BREXIT. Let us know your thoughts and opinions and leave a comment below.

National Mental Capacity Action Day 2016

Aiming to increase awareness and highlight good practice of the Mental Capacity Act, the new National Mental Capacity Forum has organised the National MCA Action Day for the 15th March this year.

As an article from Community Care UK states, The Mental Capacity Act is about ‘treating people as human beings worthy of respect and time.’ The forum intends to identify MCA improvement priorities for the coming year, and work towards improving the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act at the frontline.

The Adult Principal Social Workers Network is encouraging practitioners to post comments and photos illustrating unwise decisions they have made, to highlight the importance of respecting the capacitated ‘unwise’ decisions of people receiving support. If you want to get involved, just follow the Mental Capacity Act forum on twitter @MCAatDH and use the twitter hashtags #mca and #unwisedecisionto share what decision you have made that could be considered unwise by other people.

If you want to further yours or your staffs’ knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act, we have an online training course that can help. All of the key aims and principles of this important legislation are covered, including the concepts of capacity and best interests, and the importance of the Code of Practice and how the courts become involved.

On top of this, we have MCA - specialist case studies. This course contains a set of four specialist units and has been developed specifically for practitioners working in these settings:

• Mental Health
• Acute Hospitals
• Community and Primary Care
• Residential Settings

The specialist case studies course comprises twenty different cases and can be used as the basis for staff training, refresher sessions, individual learning and continuous professional development, and as a day-to-day reference for staff. If you are working towards a CPD certificate, the Mental Capacity Act - Specialist Case Studies will award you 4 hours.
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If you are interested in training for the Mental Capacity Act or any other health and social care modules, view our catalogue of 50+ e-learning courses here and get in touch today on 0161 928 9987.

Nutrition and Hydration Week 2016

In 2015, 32 Nations pledged their support to Nutrition and Hydration Week, and the website http://nutritionandhydrationweek.co.uk/ had over 9000 visits from 49 countries.

This year, the awareness week takes place from the 14th-20th March. The mission is to “create a global movement that will reinforce and focus energy, activity and engagement on nutrition and hydration as an important part of quality care, experience and safety improvement in health and social care settings.”

The following 10 key characteristics of ‘good nutrition and hydration care’, taken from the Nutrition and Hydration Week website, are a requirement to meet the Hospital Food Standards SC19, set out in the NHS Contract for hospitals:

1. Screen all patients and service-users to identify malnourishment or risk of malnourishment and ensure actions are progressed and monitored.
2. Together with each patient or service user, create a personal care/support plan enabling them to have choice and control over their own nutritional care and fluid needs.
3. Care providers should include specific guidance on food and beverage services and other nutritional & hydration care in their service delivery and accountability arrangements.
4. People using care services are involved in the planning and monitoring arrangements for food service and drinks provision.
5. Food and drinks should be provided alone or with assistance in an environment conducive to patients being able to consume their food (Protected Mealtimes).
6. All health care professionals and volunteers receive regular raining to ensure they have the skills, qualifications and competencies needed to meet the nutritional and fluid requirements of people using their services.
7. Facilities and services providing nutrition and hydration are designed to be flexible and centred on the needs of the people using them, 24 hours a day, every day.
8. All care providers are to have a nutrition and hydration policy centred on the needs of users, and is performance managed in line with local governance, national standards and regulatory frameworks.
9. Food, drinks and other nutritional care are delivered safely.
10. Care providers should take a multi-disciplinary approach to nutrition and hydrational care, valuing the contribution of all staff, people using the service, carers and volunteers working in partnership.

 Watch this video from the Nutrition and Hydration Week organisers to find out more information on each of these 10 points.

Good nutrition and hydration can help people to recover more quickly from an illness.
This week is a platform to raise awareness and make sure carers know the importance of a patient’s nutrition and hydration- to improve or maintain their wellbeing.

At Embrace-learning, we provide quality e-learning resources to the health and social care sector. Our online training course, “Nutrition, Diet and Health”, will benefit learners with little or no previous knowledge, enabling them to gain an understanding of the importance of providing meals that fulfil the nutritional requirements of the human body. The course covers topics like:

• The Eatwell Plate
• 5-a-day Campaign
• Nutrition during pregnancy, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age
• Nutrition for Vegetarians, Vegans and Ethnic Minority Groups

View our catalogue of 50+ e-learning courses and purchase your online nutrition course at www.embrace-learning.com.  ​

The benefits of e-learning

Get The Care Certificate e-Learning Course- Free

For a limited time only, get unlimited use of
The Care Certificate e-learning course COMPLETELY FREE when you purchase a pay monthly package deal from Embrace-learning.

The Care Certificate, as described by Skills for Care, is an identified set of standards that health and social care workers adhere to in their daily working life. It gives everyone the confidence that workers have the same introductory skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high quality care and support.

As well as being used for staff who are new to the care industry, the Care Certificate can be completed by existing staff to refresh or improve their knowledge.

 To take advantage of huge cost savings, just select the course titles and tell us the number of learners, and we will discuss the best package with you. You also get our Learner Management System free of charge with any package, helping you to track and monitor learner progress, and run management reports.

Unlimited use of the Care Certificate means that over the 12 month period you could buy 50 other course titles and still use the Care Certificate 250 times, so everybody who needs the Care Certificate has the opportunity to complete it, free of charge.

Click here to view our catalogue of 50+ courses.

You can be assured of the highest standard of training with our CQC compliant, certificated courses.

 E-learning can be integrated in to your current training matrix offering flexibility, improving quality and ultimately reducing your overall training costs.

 View more information on our package deals here.

Contact Embrace-learning 0161 928 9987

GPs should urge patients to go online: e-learning alternative to standard medical prescriptions

BBC News recently published an article: GPs should urge patients to go online. The recommendations made by Baroness Martha Lane Fox include every NHS building having access to free wi-fi. The aim is for GPs to actively encourage patients to go online for booking appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions, enabling the NHS to push forward with an IT revolution.

Tim Kelsey, NHS England national director for patients and information, said: "Digital health tools can dramatically improve people's lives and well-being.”

E-learning is increasingly being used as an alternative to standard medical prescriptions.
There is a wealth of evidence to show that early intervention is both effective and highly cost efficient.

GPs can now prescribe e-learning courses to patients and carers giving the learner the opportunity to access training anywhere they have an internet connection. This flexibility to gain self-help can provide early intervention for many common ailments and is an effective way of enhancing the health and well-being, and resilience of patients and carers. 

Baroness Lane Fox said "One of the founding principles of the NHS was to ensure that everyone - irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation - should have equal opportunity to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available." In rural areas, there is limited access to the internet, but if NHS buildings were to implement the free wi-fi for all, patients could still benefit from e-learning within the buildings. If required, courses can also be downloaded so they can be accessed without an internet connection.

Our course range at Embrace-learning includes:

• About Me: Building Resilience for Caring
• Awareness of Alcohol and Substance Misuse
• Obesity and Nutrition
• Supporting People with Autism
• Supporting People with Cerebral Palsy
• Supporting People with Diabetes Mellitus

Find out more at our website: www.embrace-learning.com