mCare has numerous features and integrations to enhance the quality of dementia care we offer. For example, mCare has a feature called 'Who I Am', modelled on Alzheimer's Society's 'This is Me' tool. This feature is designed to enhance the quality of information and facilitate the sharing of information.
'Who I Am' includes several important aspects, such as the resident's routines, things that are important to them, their likes and dislikes, how to best support them, their life story, and their wishes for the future. It also includes information on what makes a resident feel better if they are upset or anxious. It's been a great help.
Individuals living with dementia are at a higher risk of experiencing falls, even during the earliest stages of the condition - this is often due to dehydration caused by communication difficulties or forgetting to drink water. mCare's Fluid and Nutrition Monitoring feature is an excellent way to avoid dehydration in our care homes.
Our care team can easily monitor and manage residents' hydration levels, ensuring they receive the necessary fluids to promote their health and wellbeing.
We frequently use mCare's Hospital Pack feature, which we find very useful. This feature automatically gathers information from residents' 'Who I Am' profiles to ensure our care team understands their needs at every stage of their health and social care journey.
This feature also helps save time and effort when preparing documentation if someone is transported to an urgent care setting, collating valuable data that supports our caregiving and improves our residents' quality of life and wellbeing.
We're working on a big project with PainChek®, one of the world's leading pain assessment tools. The tool uses facial analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) to assess and score pain levels, which is particularly helpful for some of our dementia residents, as their cognitive and functional impairment impacts their pain expression.
We recently implemented PainChek in our largest home with the vision to expand across our other homes. One of the things I like the most about mCare is that it seamlessly integrates well with PainChek, which enables us to extract valuable information.
Numerous features in mCare help us deliver better dementia care, but it would take too long to discuss all of them.
I use the system to gather all kinds of necessary data; this could be related to person-centred care planning or the data I collect from the wide range of risk assessments available on mCare, which all meet industry standard Assessment Tools.
Whatever it is, with mCare, I can audit data quickly and easily, whenever and wherever I am. I then use this information to form the initial part of my dementia audit, which gives us a lot of insight into the lived experience of residents with dementia and covers essential aspects such as whether the homes are adhering to our 'Shaping the Future Together 2023 – 2026 Dementia manifesto' or our key projects around the use of antipsychotics and positive communication protocols, whether or not the homes are providing person-centred care, etc.
Furthermore, mCare provides real-time data that can help with governance elements and quality because all the data is easily accessible. The data provides a clear overview of what's happening across the homes, and it's possible to analyse it at a deeper level to get a more comprehensive picture. The availability of such data ensures better care by putting relevant information at your fingertips.
Before using this kind of technology, gathering all the information we needed took a lot of time. Using a system like mCare can provide more evidence to measure the effectiveness of what you're doing in your role.
mCare also significantly bolsters safeguarding efforts, including helping to enhance security. Person Centred Software takes data security and information governance very seriously, using a variety of measures to ensure that personal records and sensitive information remain secure.
We have received exceptional support from Person Centred Software. Whenever we raise a ticket, our issues are addressed promptly. So far, we haven't encountered any major problems with mCare. The only issues we faced were minor ones, like forgetting a password, which we were able to resolve with the help of our internal support. Overall, we are very impressed with the level of support we have received for the past 8 years.
What is the most helpful mCare feature for residents living with dementia?
For me, it would be the whole system. Every element works together seamlessly and helps us deliver better dementia care. The features provide the necessary information to monitor, track, and analyse the data collected to improve resident outcomes. Overall, it's a great system that has made our work much easier and more efficient.
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Does mCare help with regulations?
Our director of governance and operations uses mCare to gather all the necessary data. With the help of mCare, she can create individual KPIs for each home, compare homes to identify what's going well and what areas require improvement, review and report on trends, and support the development of improvement plans for each home. mCare has been highly beneficial in helping her perform her role effectively and drive improvements.
What would you say to care homes that specialise in dementia care and are still using paper-based records?
In our sector, it is important to be progressive and not afraid of technology. With the right training, support, and a system like mCare, technology can significantly enhance caregiving services while saving time and safeguarding the home. I suggest embracing technology and keeping up with the times, as it can transform services and provide adult social care with tremendous opportunities.
(Glad to Care is an awareness week, run by Person Centred Software, dedicated to appreciating the hard work of care professionals and expressing gratitude for the exceptional effort they invest in the lives of care recipients).
It is a privilege to be able to provide care for people. Whenever I deliver training to our care team, I always remind them that we could be in that position one day. Therefore, we must give the best possible care to the people who have shaped our society, worked hard, and contributed to where we are today. We recognise thatcarers must be appreciated and recognised as professionals. Our carers are highly skilled, trained, and valuable to us all.
Caroline's health and social care journey
Caroline has dedicated 27 years of her career to the social care sector, starting in care homes for older adults, progressing to care home management, and then onto senior operational and dementia leadership roles. In 2013, Caroline pursued a degree programme in dementia studies with the acclaimed Bradford University, which she completed with a first-class honours degree. Along with achieving the Davida Fortinsky award for outstanding dementia studies in her year.
Caroline's drive for innovation has led her to ensure that each of the group's care homes delivers B&M's Rose Model Dementia Care - a person-centred approach to care that focuses on a resident as a 'whole person' to improve their physical, psychological, social, and emotional wellbeing. Caroline is also passionate about delivering research and evidence-based dementia care and cultivating her depth of knowledge to steer B&M Care's vision for providing exceptional benchmark standards in each of the group's homes.
mCare is an essential piece of software for us and supports our work with PainChek. We can track the data using mCare, which helps us build better person-centred care plans. This has been particularly helpful for our residents with advanced dementia, who can now have an assessment completed (which automatically links to their care plan) so they have the correct pain plan in place. We love this system and don't know how we would manage without it.
Gemma Carter
Home Manager at Ryeview Manor, B&M Care Homes
My team and I have found mCare extremely beneficial at Chadwick Care Home. The system helps our carers record care in a timely manner and supports a range of skill sets. As the system is icon-led, it makes recording care notes quick and seamless, leading to more care being recorded and more time with residents.
With mCare, we have all the information we need at our fingertips, and the carers sit with our residents and share the information with them. This helps to build relationships and empowers our residents to have input into their care. It is, after all, their care plan. I particularly like the way the care plan is designed. The front page provides a snapshot of key care needs, and we can build and view the detailed care plan, along with supportive risk assessments. It's a great system that compliments and evidences our care delivery while giving more time back to our wonderful residents.
Manpreet Kaur
Home Manager at the Chadwick Care Home, B&M Care Homes
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