Scottish Care Conference Summary
What a great day we had at the Scottish Care Conference on Friday! The event was well organized, everyone’s stands looked great and the speakers were informative and interesting. Here’s our highlights of the day.
Thanks!
First things first, we want to express a very big thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand to enquire about our products or just to say hello. It was lovely to put faces to so many of our customers and meet new people from the industry.
Don’t forget that you can download or view our full product catalogue here and sign up to our newsletter (see the box in the right hand of this page) for more updates.
Activities in Care Homes
Our activity boards and menu boards definitely attracted more interest than any other product at our stand.
We were thrilled to hear that more and more care homes are increasing the activities offered in their home, as well as hiring activity co-ordinators and providers to expand the range of options available to residents.
Keeping residents active has been proven to reduce stress and agitation, as well as improve mental and physical well-being.
Frustration in the Industry
During the political debate section of the day, it became very clear that there is a huge amount of frustration in the care industry over key issues such as funding, public perception, policy and recruitment.
Journalist Penny Taylor did an excellent job of directing the debate and showed a keen appreciation of the opportunity that this panel presented to make politicians face the issues that matter most to the industry.
At times the frustration of the delegates swelled to obvious anger, and many of those who asked questions were obviously upset at the lack of control they feel when politics, budgets and red tape get in the way of them providing quality care.
There are no easy answers, but hopefully events such as this one will allow policy makers to debate the issues with a deeper understanding of the care industry.
Positive Change
It’s important to acknowledge that while much of the media hype surrounding the care industry highlights the extreme negative stories there is a huge amount of good happening in the care sector.
There are hundreds of carers doing a great job, providing quality care as well as personal and friendly attention.
There are also a great many number of initiatives going on to find new ways to improve the industry at every level. The “Partnership and Innovation” speakers highlighted some of these, illustrating how academic, public, private and third sector communities can work together to provide information and ideas to improve efficiency and quality of life for the older generation.
We highly encourage you to find out more, and get involved in these projects at the links below:
- Enrich – Research for care homes
- Change Fund – a grant to help bridge the funding gap for care providers
- Forget Me Not Project – Volunteer programme being run by Alzheimer Scotland
- My Home Life – a project to promote quality of life in care homes for both residents and staff
Congratulations!
Finally, congratulations to all of the Awards winners for 2013. We tip our cap to everyone who was nominated, and thank all those working hard in the care sector for our loved ones.
Were you at the Scottish Care Conference? Leave your comments below.