Annual Report 2010-11 - Southern Health and Social Care Trust

southern health and social care trust
Maximising independence and choice for our
patients and clients
Disability Service User Forum
The Trust’s Disability Service User Forum was
one of the 16 finalists at the first ever Regional
Social Work Awards.
Bronagh McKeown, Head of Physical and
Sensory Disability Support Services at the
Southern Trust, said, “We worked with 50 service
users with physical and sensory disabilities to
increase service user input into the provision of
health and social care. We were delighted to have
the assistance of Disability Action in supporting
the formation and ongoing work of the Forum.”
The service users undertook training on Disability
Equality, Human Rights and Representation
Skills, and 15 service users were elected to a
Representative Forum. This Forum aims to ensure
service users have an opportunity to influence
Health and Social Care Services delivered in their
area.
Andrew Martin, who is a member of the Forum,
said: “The service user forum gives an important
opportunity for people with disabilities to express
their opinion on how services are run in the Trust.
We welcome the initiative which enables us to
have our say on how our services are run.”
Telehealth
Over the last three years 627 people living with
respiratory disease, heart failure, diabetes and
stroke in the Southern Trust area have benefited
from remote telehealth monitoring in their own
homes.
Currently, 200 patients living with these conditions
are being monitored through this new technology.
They are able to check their vital signs, such as
pulse, blood pressure, body weight, temperature
and oxygen saturation on a daily basis. This
information is sent through the telephone line or
mobile phone to the Specialist team’s computer.
The telehealth monitoring enables clinical
judgments on the person’s health to be made. It
also helps detect if there is deterioration in the
person’s condition at an early stage, which can
help prevent hospital admission. Receiving care
at home rather than in a hospital maximises
independence and choice for patients and
improves their quality of life.
Trust launches Enteral Tube
Feeding Guidelines for Adults
The Trust has launched and implemented
‘Enteral Tube Feeding Guidelines for Adults’.
There are approximately 100 adults in the
community receiving enteral tube feeding
throughout the Trust including 22 year old Niall
Bannon who sustained serious injuries from a
road traffic accident as a child. Since then he has
been unable to eat or drink orally and depends on
an enteral feeding tube in his stomach for all his
nutrition and fluids.
Kevin Doherty, Director of Services, Disability Action; Maria
Hughes; Gerry Murray; Andrew Martin; Bernie McCabe; Bronagh
McKeown, Head of Physical and Sensory Disability Support
Services, Southern Trust; and Carey Ann Clarke, Training
Co-ordinator, Disability Action, at the Social Work Awards
His mother Marie said ‘I am delighted to see the
guidelines on tube feeding being launched as
they will be of great benefit not only to staff but
also to patients and their carers. My views were
sought in the planning stages when I met up in a
group with other carers to put forward our views
on what we thought was important to be included.’
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