Willowbrook Practice Development Team delivers Palliative Care training

Last month, our Practice Development Team visited Parr Care Home to offer an Introduction to Palliative Care training.

Our facilitators, Lauren Lloyd and Catherine Owens delivered training around End of Life care, holistic care, the importance of nutrition and mouthcare and much more, to all staff at the nursing home.

Kelvin Bessant-Smith, Home Manager requested this training as they follow the Gold Standard Framework (GSF) which is due to be reviewed. GSF is a practical and evidence-based end of life care service improvement programme, and aims to enable a ‘gold standard’ of care for everyone, with any condition, in any setting, given by any care provider, at any time in a person’s last years of life.

Kelvin said: “We approached Willowbrook to offer us this training as the GSF is only a three year accreditation. We have over 70 members of staff here, we have had to arrange the course in a number of sessions so that everyone can attend on their non working days.

This has been a very positive experience, we have all felt empowered and have learnt so much. We have always had a good relationship with Willowbrook, as they provide a helpline service support to us.

Lauren and Catherine are very good at what they do, and very knowledgeable. The training has been delivered in a way that helps everyone understand well, we ensured that all staff from different ranks were to attend the training. Learning off Willowbrook directly is a great opportunity. Our desired goal is to give our residents the best experience during the time they have with us.”

Catherine said, “Lauren and I have truly enjoyed working closely with Parr, building strong relationships and tailoring the training to meet their specific needs. It’s been fascinating to learn about the different ways care settings operate and the unique challenges they face. We’ve gained as much insight from them as they have from us!

This training course has been a trial, and moving forward, we hope to offer similar training to other nursing homes and care facilities. However, this can only happen with funding, allowing us to provide essential palliative care training to more local care settings at a reduced or even no cost, which would be incredible.”