Improved personal outcomes for adult residents with physical disabilities have led to new ways of working being adopted into everyday practice.
Halton Council’s Adult Social Care services have completed a pilot of an innovative approach to meeting the needs of those adults in the borough who are unable to physically move themselves.
People with physical disabilities, illness and impairment are benefitting from the ‘Moving with Dignity’ ethos to care which incorporates the use of specialist equipment together with up-to-date moving and handling of people techniques.
‘Moving with Dignity’ means just that; it looks at the numbers of carers involved in the lifting, moving and transferring of people with limited physical ability and assesses whether fewer people can achieve the same outcomes by using the different tools and techniques.
Sometimes referred to as ‘single-handed care’ the approach is being embraced by social services across the country and Halton’s implementation of the systems of working have already proved invaluable.
In the Council’s latest ‘Adult Social Care Annual Report’ the trail approach is cited as a success and the changes have since been embedded into day-to-day working practice.
The report gives an account of the preliminary investment made and the service transformation processes required to implement this new way of working.
Over the initial pilot period a total of 247 pieces of equipment were allocated to service users to support this approach and 96 people were supported contrary to tradition method of having ‘two-handed’ care – where two people help move the service user.
The Annual Report gives a publicly-available account of the social services provided to adults across Halton. In total the Council supported 4,483 adults with care and support needs during 2019/20, including conducting 1,328 Occupational Therapy assessments to those with limited or impaired physical ability.
Halton Borough Council’s Executive Board Member for Social Care, Cllr Tom McInerney, said: “Moving with Dignity represents an approach that incorporates the least intrusive ways of meeting people’s moving and handling needs.
“It can allow a person to be re-positioned or lifted from one place to another, often with the help of just one carer.
“In practice, this is more a discreet approach to care and can mean that family can continue to care for loved ones at home without the support of additional agencies going into their home.”
The Adult Social Care Annual Report, covering service delivery between April 2019 and March 2020, can be read in full at: https://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/councildemocracy/pdfs/adultsocialcare/adult_social_care_report.pdf