CAPA Improvement Programme update July 2017

It’s been a busy month for the CAPA team with lots of positive activity and developments that will really help older people in Scotland to become more active with increased health and happiness.

Learning events The CAPA team has been around the country over the last few weeks facilitating the first round of learning events. The 10 events were a huge success attracting over 500 care professionals and other partners from services across Scotland.

Our Improvement Advisers have also continued to visit services, linking with local leads and supporting care staff with their improvement plans.
Shona Omand-Smith, CAPA Improvement Manager said: “Everyone has been so enthusiastic and energetic about the Programme and there were some really good improvement plans being discussed at each event inspiring others to think about people they care for and how they could adapt and change things to improve their health, wellbeing and mobility.”

Here are some ideas linked to the three Programme principles and nine improvement areas that came out of the lively discussions that were had.

Physical activity and participation

  1. Voices and choices: Discuss where people are now, in terms of their activity and movement levels and work out how they can be supported to improve.
  2. Promotion: Improve the breakfast time experience by promoting more independence and choice (for example, people making their own tea and coffee or walking independently to the dining room).
  3. Everyone’s business: Encourage families and staff to use movement bingo cards to increase movement daily in a fun, engaging way.

Organisational culture and commitments

  1. Leadership, management and support: Introduce 10 minute movement sessions involving all staff and residents each morning.
    3 Enabling environments: Develop gardens and other outdoor spaces with staff, families and friends to encourage people to go outside more, for example to pot plants, grow vegetables, or hang up laundry.
  2. Staff training and support: Show the CAPA DVD and use Make Every Move Count guides at induction, specific, training and team meetings to reinforce key messages and generate ideas.

Community connections

  1. Advice guidance and planning: Work with walking groups to encourage, those experiencing care, their carers and relatives to take part in short walks.
  2. Access to places and spaces: Connect with local community groups to encourage them to share what is going on locally and encourage those experiencing care and care professionals to get involved.
  3. Families, friends, volunteers and others: Encourage families to give their ideas for areas for development and how they can be included and be part of the support network.

The learning events were upbeat, with lots of opportunities for people to be active. There was dancing, walking meetings, chair exercises and even a quick Tai Chi session to re-energise people after lunch. Watch North Lanarkshire CAPA Event video

Internal learning Programme

Part of the CAPA programme involves an internal learning programme for all Care Inspectorate inspection teams, as part of their Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The learning programme will give inspection staff an insight into the CAPA project and how the CAPA team is supporting improvement plans in care services so that they too can help to embed CAPA, recognise good practice and help care staff develop other improvement opportunities when they visit care services. The half-day courses will be held at Care Inspectorate offices during September and October.

Information on how inspection staff can book their place will be published soon on The Hub and through ‘People Like Us’.

Undergraduate Module development

The Care Inspectorate as part of the CAPA programme has commissioned Glasgow Caledonian University to develop, test and evaluate a module for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) which will relate to promoting physical activity in frailer older people. Professor Dawn Skelton, Professor in Ageing and Health and her team are leading this. The module will be optional and available to students in Glasgow Caledonian University from departments such as
Social Work; Radiography; Occupational Therapy; Physiotherapy and Nursing. The module will be tested in the University semester starting in January 2018. The module will be available to Allied Health Professionals and other professionals in other universities and colleges who are interested in this
exciting opportunity. The module aims to develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed for working with frailer older people, and those transitioning to frailty, to support improvement in their health and wellbeing through moving more.

The schedule for the module will be established so as to maximise access to current students and those already qualified. Scheduled learning and teaching activities will most likely occur in early evenings over a period of weeks. Independent guided study will take place at the student’s discretion. There will also be opportunities to work with local organisations as part of this developing and testing this module. As part of this work an online learning
programme will be developed and will be open to any interested person from early 2018. Though the module is geared to Allied Health Professionals, it will also be open to anyone interested in the topic and will be helpful for social care professionals. It will cover such topics as guidelines and recommendations, along with the theory and practice of promoting less sitting and moving more often for older adults in a variety of settings. Those who successfully finish the online programme will gain a completion certificate.

Please let Louise Kelly know if you are interested in finding out more about how to register your interest for these learning opportunities.
Email to Louise Kelly

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