| Latest News |
14/08/09
Michael Rosen, ex-Children's Poet Laureate in the UK, has agreed that his commissioned poem about the NHS "These are the Hands" can join the "Poems for..." collection and be translated into different languages.
25/02/09
Hyphen-21 backs proposal for a code of professional practice for service user consultation.
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The Shared Care record (or Home-Support Book) puts the service user/patient at the heart of the care that is offered and makes him/her a partner in how it is described. Case history, in fact, becomes personal story. "It" becomes "Thou". For the professional, recording becomes less the cover-your-own-back official description of events, and more an act of co-operation with the user of the service, his/her family, and with fellow service providers.
Another name for the Shared Care record is the Patient Held Record. In this guise, the idea first appeared in Britain over twenty years ago, in the Maternity Services. The pregnant woman was given a record card, and took it from service to service. The services were thus kept in touch with each other and with developments in the case ; and the patient remained at the centre of, and in touch with, the whole operation. It was a highly successful approach and still operates.
The idea has since spread to various other services. In recent years a version of it, in the form of an A4 ring-binder file, was piloted in the Kensington area of London and used for people who are housebound, being visited by a variety of services, from District Nurse to Home Help. In most cases these people were elderly. Another version, a pocket-sized ring-binder file, designed for people with mental health problems, was piloted in Lewisham, Paddington and Tower Hamlets.
Full-length reports are available on both models. To request one, contact us.
Both versions, the A4 and the pocket-sized, contain pages, carefully designed, which list all the workers involved in the case and how to contact them ; what to do in an emergency ; a copy of the care plan ; an ongoing record that gives dates of interviews and interventions, who came, and briefly what happened.
The Kensington version is now established as permanent policy in that locality and - one hopes - is spreading.
The mental health pilot was less successful, due chiefly - I am convinced - to professional resistance and suspicion. At the end of the Paddington pilot nearly ten years ago a psychiatrist suggested : "It's a good idea but needs a whole change of culture before it'll work."
Has that change of culture now taken place ? Certainly, during the last ten years, much effort has been put into forcing disciplines to work closer together, merging budgets, involving service users, etc, Now services are required to ensure the service user has a copy of his/her Care Plan. They are also expected to have clear policies worked out in each individual case on what to do in the event of a crisis. The shared care record caters for both these items.
The only small problem is that the Blame Culture is flourishing as strong as ever. (See Morale in Care Services).
The pocket sized version of the record is still available and if anyone is interested to obtain one, please contact us.
However, there is now a new design also available which can be recommended. It combines the best of both the previous versions. It is A4 and would be expected to stay in the client’s home, although it could of course be taken to CPA meetings or even into hospital. The pages have been saved in pdf (see across) and can be carried in any team’s computer.
The writer knows that this idea and design works very well in the support of people who are elderly ; is certain that it would also work well in the support of people with learning difficulties ; and is confident that it will eventually find its place in the support of people with mental health problems. Perhaps 2005 will see it at last establish itself.
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| Shared Care Pages |
Individual pages from the new Shared Care Record:
Intro
File size:52k |
Click here |
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Personal Details
File size:55k |
Click here |
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Personal Contacts
File size: 54k |
Click here |
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Professional Contacts
File size:48k |
Click here |
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In case of Emergency
File size: 47k |
Click here |
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In case of Emergency (cont)
File size:47k |
Click here |
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Help Guide
File size: 62k |
Click here |
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Weekly Planner
File size: 47k |
Click here |
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Community Care Plan 1
File size: 44k |
Click here |
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Community Care Plan 2
File size: 44k |
Click here |
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Other Meeting Notes 1
File size: 45k |
Click here |
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Other Meeting Notes 2
File size: 45k |
Click here |
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Ongoing Record 1
File size: 46k |
Click here |
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Ongoing Record 2
File size: 46k |
Click here |
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| Some Bullet Points |
Bullet-points on the mental health Shared Care Record.
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| File size: 62k |
Click here |
| Q&A |
A list of questions/answers.
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| File size: 113k |
Click here |
An Evaluation
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Some evaluation findings.
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| File size: 77k |
Click here |
 to view PDFs |