Wednesday 30 September 2015

A Sticking Plaster Solution that is not a sticking plaster solution.



Lets start with a story, (thanks SHCR:) A few weeks ago one Sunday I was carrying a bit of timber and somehow something on the floor managed to trap my feet, the harder I tried to move the tighter the grip on my feet. It was 11 am, so no I wasn't carrying a gin and tonic!

Cut to slow motion sequence, the feet have stopped moving, the rest of me hasn’t so with hands full I was right on target to take a bite out of the concrete floor. I decided that a flat face wasn’t a look I aspired to so used my forearm against a timber post as a brake block. I will spare you the close up shots and rather bleepy soundtrack.

So now I have a deep graze, but on the upside at least I don’t have a flat face. I washed the wound with boiled salt water and applied antiseptic every 12 hours and kept it lightly covered most of the time. I am 61 and have a rather denuded immune system so despite my best efforts infection was setting in rapidly and the weekend was approaching.

It was now Friday and the skin round the wound was reddening and hurt as much as the wound so I went to the pharmacist for advice. I should mention that I had a nasty throat abscess in July and ended up in A&E twice so I know how rapidly things can go pear shaped.

The pharmacist recommended Hydrocolloid dressings, I’d never heard of them and yet apparently that have been in use in hospitals for years as it speeds recovery and reduces scarring. So I used one on my forearm, they are a little weird and floppy, no jokes please:)   

Within 24 hours the wound was calming down, by 48 hours all reddening had gone and because they are breathable and water proof you can take a bath no prob. In terms of cost they are great value as you only need to change them every 3 days and they don’t fall off meantime.

I bet if you looked at the total cost of treating infected grazes in the over 50’s that have then needed a Dr, Practice/District Nurse or A&E to intervene its a significant annual cost to the NHS.

So why not run an awareness campaign and consider handing out a pack of these Hydrocolliod dressings with every flu jab... because compared to anything else you can buy over the counter these dressings will stop a lot of minor injuries turning into things that need medical intervention and that cost the NHS a lot to treat every day?  

Just saving the cost to the NHS of 10 patients being treated for infected grazes would buy an awful lot of sticking plasters...

Radical or old school common sense? 


Thursday 10 September 2015

What went in to creating the toolkit?

Grassroots Suicide Prevention Toolkit for people with Learning Disabilities 

Some years ago I was asked to draw on my 30 years experience as video director to transform a 40 page legal tenancy agreement into a “see and hear” version for supported living tenants for Origin and Dimensions. So I worked with the tenants every step of the way to benchmark and test my “visual language”. 

As a troubled young man I have personal experience of what it is to have suicidal feelings, I shared my story on the Samaritans website stressing the importance of there being someone to talk to at a time of need. The 3 suicides that have touched my life were sadly all people with learning disabilities. 

Being a tad dyslexic means I have a learning disability too so perhaps it was destiny that the inspiring Chris Brown, formerly a director of Grassroots Suicide Prevention saw my housing association work and got in touch.  

Over a period of about a year we slowly gathered research as there is nothing out there, some was done quite formally via sessions run by Brighton and Hove based advocacy Speak Out with their clients. You can read some of their stories but you will need a box of tissues.

I also spent that time talking to parents and carers from around the world who so kindly shared the intimate and tragic details of their experiences with a stranger. It was the hardest research project I have ever taken on, but it gave me a much better feel for the breadth of the LD spectrum and how best to communicate this most difficult of topics to them. 

As ideas and concepts were developed we were so lucky to have a team of people with learning disabilities who were prepared to get involved and give us their vital feedback,which now forms part of our evidence base.  It’s a tragic fact that they all knew people who had attempted and sometimes succeeded in hurting themselves or ending their lives, so special thanks to them for their courage and commitment.

I spent 18 months creating testing and refining the suicide prevention tool kit, getting the language and tone of voice right was a complex challenge. We put considerable effort into making the character  "gender neutral", the skin tone was approached with the same inclusive thinking. When we finally had a finished product we then ran a pilot for 6 months.  

The degree of approval and positive feedback has exceeded anything we ever dared expect, all the respected names in this area have endorsed it, LD nurses let us run a tweet chat about it. I have 
presented it to an audience of LD clinicians at Kings College and again the feedback was positive.



Having got clinical sign off from Brighton and Hove LD team and with 500 copies out there in the community the vision is simple, it should be a free tool available to individuals,charities, supported living providers and carers nationally.  

The overriding message from the toolkit is how important "talking to someone" is, and we touch on and acknowledge the reasons why this is so hard and more importantly we guide them in ways to start the conversation to get the support they need. We also provide strategies for identifying triggers and simple tools for coping when they feel overwhelmed.

From my experience of working with poeple who have an intellectual/learning disability just because you may have a learning or Intellectual disability doesn't mean you experience loss, sadness, isolation or any other emotion differently from anyone else. 

What is so much harder for people with LD/ID is to communicate how they feel and understand what they are feeling and then to reach out to get help and that's where you may come in.

The toolkit was produced in partnership with Grassroots an amazing Brighton based suicide prevention charity.  http://www.prevent-suicide.org.uk

In order for the toolkit to become a free to use nationwide resource we are now updating the "get help" section and we are looking to any organisations around the UK that do provide support for people with learning difficulties to add to our list. Can you help? if you can please contact grassroots or me, I am @chicustard on Twitter.  


Here is a link to the toolkit video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNaWcmlEM9c&t=1s


Thanks for reading 

Jon 


Copyright Jon Bryant 2018