Member Article

Newcastle Theatre company launch training DVD to challenge UK care industry standards

Newcastle based theatre company, Open Clasp have launched an innovative and thought provoking in house DVD training package for care organisations that addresses the fundamental values set out in the Governments Compassion in Practice Agenda and has been endorsed by the North East Dementia Alliance. The Open Clasp production Swags & Tails takes a look at a series of real life care issues and how they can best be addressed to offer a person centred approach to care.

The engaging and truthful scenes developed for the Swags & Tails production are based on the real experiences and opinions of 166 older women, carers, care providers, healthcare nurses and people living with dementia. Tailoring the programme to the Compassion in Practice Agenda the training package address the 6 areas recommended by the Government including Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage and Commitment.

“The fact that the entire content of the training package is based on the experiences of real women in the North East is what makes it so powerful. The DVD will help care organisations commit to adopting a more person centred approach to care especially those working with people with dementia,” comments Debbie Smith, Regional National Dementia Strategy Development from Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

For care organisations looking for an affordable and innovative way of training their staff on the individual needs of older people and those living with dementia the Swags & Tails training package is an excellent investment. Having seen the training package Andrea Spyropoulos, President of the Royal College of Nursing believes that it “represents both patient and staff perspectives and inspires us to do things differently - this is a very valuable tool.”

The Swags & Tails training DVD and accompanying booklet can be integrated into existing staff training packages and can be used by care organisations in two ways - as part of a group training session or individually for self-training, resulting in a service specific action plan that can be used for induction or refresher training.

Open Clasp is an award winning North East based company that specialises in bringing to life real societal issues through theatre and providing a voice to groups of women to create professional and thought provoking productions driven by the real life experiences of the women they work with.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lauren Wilkinson .