This week I launched my Time to Talk campaign which aims to combat loneliness and improve the wellbeing of those that receive care-at-home in the Highlands.
The social isolation of those who receive care at home was a huge issue prior to the pandemic, however, the lockdown has made it so much more severe. There is no doubt that our care-at-home workers look after their clients with a high degree of professionalism but there is a limit to the care they can currently provide.
Imagine being a lonely 80 year old widow who has a single twenty minute visit from her personal carer each day. Her personal carer has time to get her client dressed and out of bed, but no time left to talk because of the design of NHS Highland’s care-at-home contracts.
Under NHS Highland’s current arrangements, care-at-home is delivered on a “time and task” model whereby care is commissioned on an hourly rate. As a result, care services are delivered in very short time slots – usually twenty minutes – which gives carers time to meet they physical health needs of their clients, but little time to talk.
The long-standing “time and task” model needs to change. That is why I am calling on NHS Highland to commit to expanding their commissioning model to provide carers with more time so they can more widely enhance the wellbeing of those they care for, such as reducing loneliness or isolation. The way care-at-home is delivered is too functional at present. It is time to move towards a model of person-centred care-at-home.
I am delighted that my campaign has won the support of two of the region’s largest care providers, Highland Home Carers Ltd and Home Care (Scotland) Ltd, who I have been in contact with throughout the pandemic.
Both care providers understand that the current model is no longer sufficient and must be enhanced. As Campbell Mair, managing director of Highland Home Carers Ltd, stated: “Work is timetabled, task-focused, and people are not able to use their judgement to improve or adapt the support they provide.”
I am therefore pleased that NHS Highland has welcomed the launch of the Time to Talk campaign. NHS Highland's chief executive said the board has been looking at ways to move "from function-based personal care provision, based on the time we require to undertake care tasks, to a more outcomes-based approach which is flexible to changing needs.”
This is a step in the right direction and I will keep campaigning until NHS Highland implements a new model that improves the wellbeing of all those who receive care-at-home.
