UKPas

Good morning World,

We have been very quiet over the past few months as we have been responding to other responsibilities due to COVID 19.

We would like to apologise for our being silence, especially when Carers need as much support as they can possibly get. We would like to redress this and say that we are open once again for support, training, coaching, mentorship and community.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for care/ COVID related issues.

Stay Safe

The Team

The sound of sleigh bells, the smell of boiling sprouts and the merry laughter of children. Oh how the Elves titter.

The festive season for some is really a very depressing time, as Carers we need to remember that for many of our clients it can be a lonely experience too.

So we need to be thinking of how we can make someone’s life a little bit brighter.

So get thinking.

“You know it’s common; all that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity” (Hamlet: Act 1, scene 2)

We must all ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’, and yet people still find it hard to talk about death. I can and do appreciate the reasons why.

However, within the role of Personal Care Assistant you will be working with some people that are facing their own. This needs thinking about as we will have to be able to respond to their needs as they arise, in responding that may mean that we have to face our own mortality, our own views of death and dying.

It may be that a person doesn’t fear death, they fear the way they may die. They may not want to suffer the indignity of dying, they may fear the process of it or they may not want to suffer it alone.

They may be faced with regrets, unfinished business or a bucket list that they keep adding to and want to keep going as long as they can.

We need to be able to talk with people about death and about dying, we need to be able to support people in making plans, sorting things out, ticking off items on their bucket list.

We need to be open to facing issues with people and not supporting their avoidance of it just because it helps us to avoid it. I’m not saying that you need to sit down with somebody and say “We need to talk about death”. Or “Have you sorted out your will yet?” That would be, to put it politely, insensitive. We just need to be open about talking about it when your client wants to.

It may be that your client has just lost a partner or a friend and is grieving themselves, you will need to be open to support them too.

As I said before it will help us if we have sorted things out in our heads about our own ‘mortality’ and become self aware of our own thoughts and feelings on the subject. This is not being morbid, it’s being sensible. We need to be a position where we can support people without being vulnerable ourselves.

Working though issues is best done in a partnership and not alone.

Just a short post for now on the ubject of first aid. I am First Aid trained and, even so, I’d rather not have to do it! It is that slight anxiety of ‘cocking it up’

So, working as a Personal Care Assistant you may come across an incident that requires first aid, what do you do? Genuine question.

Obviously if it is serious you call 999 and stay with the person, hopefully you’d stem any bleeding the best way you could if they were. Or immobilise an arm or leg if you suspected a break or major sprain. What would you do if they went into shock or became unconscious and stopped breathing?

That’s just the serious stuff!!

The simpler stuff may include, cuts, bumps and bruises, headaches, dizziness, small burns and splinters.

What stuff do you have around to help? A first aid box? Box of plasters?

What is you liability?

I don’t have the answers as it is the first time I’ve really given thought to it, but I will try and find out.

I would if I were a PA get myself a first aid box and at least get some information on simple first aid. I may even go so far as to get myself some first aid training.

So have a look and see what help and support is available in your area.

And always risk assess where you are to ensure that the risk of injury is reduced at all times.

 

 

 

 

The you are, it’s 06.15 in the morning and raining quite merrily. You are going to visit Mabel at 06.00 and you have a flat tyre! You forgot to charge your phone so that’s flat too.

You manage to change your tyre, by now its 06.40, your hands are filthy and the rain has gone down the back of your neck. You arrive at Mabel’s to find she has left her front door open as she has gone out to look and see where you are. You don’t know that, all you know is that she isn’t where she should be. It takes you twenty minutes to find her as she has wondered to the bus stop to shelter from the rain.

You are now going to be late for your next call.

The joy of Lone Working…!

Being a PA you have to manage every aspect of how you work.

You have to manage risk assessments, administration, tax and insurance, care planning, time management, health & safety, infection & control, keeping up to date, communication and of course the care you deliver.

So how does it feel to be a Lone Worker?

It can feel great, you are your own boss, you can choose when you work and who for. You don’t have to clock in and clock out, or follow organisational policies.

It can also feel daunting, isolating and frustrating. The situation outlined above is not fictitious, it has happened and will happen. If not in the ways described, in other equally galling ones.

So how do you make sure you are safe and prepared?

Little things like making sure you have a spare tyre and the tools to change a flat, keeping your phone charged, having contact numbers handy, a waterproof in the car and something to nibble and drink. Servicing your car regularly.

Letting people know where you will be during the day, knowing the area where you will be working, parking under a light if its dark, being aware of who is around you and checking for danger.

Having a supply of PPE, a first aid kit and useful numbers handy.

Lone working can be a challenge so be prepared for those odd circumstances that arise.

 

 

I genuinely dislike it when a person says “I am just a….!” I feel it diminishes who they are and what they do, it eats away at their skills, knowledge and abilities.

Don’t get me wrong I am not knocking the person themselves, being ‘just a’ is a very acceptable thing to say. People may not like it if we celebrate our skills, knowledge and abilities and laud them loudly.

The role of a PA is not ‘just a’ to the person who is being provided with the support and care they need to have the best quality of life they can have, and they should expect the best quality of life too.

UKpas enables PA’s to be able to build their own profile to grow an online presence that says “Hey, I am good at my role”. “I can evidence my skills, knowledge and ability”. “I can provide great care”.

UKpas also offers opportunities to keep in contact with other PAs and to meet prospective clients.

So why not register today/

UKpas is a new company aiming to support Personal Assistants in creating an on-line presence that evidences their skills, knowledge, training, insurance cover and DBS.

UKpas will enable PA’s to access potential clients, CPD, training and other resources to enable them to provide a high level of care.

You can register easily and start to build your on-line profile.