For many years it has been the culture in the Social Care sector that tasks should be performed for people who need care, as they are unable to do them themselves. This is likely, at least in part, due to a lack of awareness about the principle: “use or lose it” and thus, a lack of questioning about whether a person has the potential to improve.
With an Enabling Care Approach, HCPA aims to change this culture!
Recent guidance on the physical and mental health benefits of being more: active, empowered, and independent, now emphasises what has been known in Therapy settings for a long time, and that is: through an enabling approach, people can actually improve, and live longer, better lives!! (Physical activity: applying All Our Health – Gov.UK Updated 10 March 2022. Available at: Physical activity: applying All Our Health – GOV.UK)
Moreover, the act of empowering others has an invaluable impact on the mental health and wellbeing of individuals who deliver care, therefore staff who receive this education tend to report greater job satisfaction and feelings of self-worth.
The NICE guidance NG74 2017 explains re-ablement as: “Assessment and interventions provided to people in their home (or care home) aiming to help them recover skills and confidence, and maximise their independence”.
This guidance however refers to the NHS Intermediate Care Teams, which are a range of integrated services that: promote faster recovery from illness; prevent unnecessary acute hospital admissions and premature admissions to long-term care; support timely discharge from hospital; and maximise independent living. These intermediate care services are usually delivered for no longer than 6 weeks and often for as little as 1 to 2 weeks. Until now there has been no other guidance on what is meant by the terms Enablement/Enabling Care, and even less on how to create an Enabling Care Approach culture across all care settings.
HCPA have therefore been working with all Stakeholders across Hertfordshire (HCC, CCGs, DTA Teams, Community Therapy Teams, Monitoring Officers, Safeguarding Teams) to create training and toolkits that are fit for purpose, and to ensure that everyone is aware of, and on board with, this essential service.