How digital technologies can ease stress among care workers and the community

Technology designed to give carers more time to spend with residents and less time on administration 

International Stress Awareness Week, created by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA), began in 2018 to raise awareness about stress, stress prevention and the importance of well-being for individuals and organisations – ensuring those suffering from stress seek advice. 

 The theme for this year is ''working together to build resilience and reduce stress''. The International Stress Management Association aims to reach out and collaborate with individuals and organisations working to reduce stress and support people and communities to improve their well-being and resilience.  

To coincide with International Stress Awareness Week, Person Centred Software, a market leader in care home software and provider of the UK’s most widely used Digital Care System, discusses the need for digital technologies and interoperability within social care. Person Centred Software also talks about how digital care planning software can help support care workers and increase people’s care choices and independence.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly put a strain on the UK's health and social care services. People of all professions have worked tirelessly to help those in need, and it's impossible to overestimate the impact of working under such sustained pressure. The latest research from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has highlighted that health and social care workers have faced various challenges during the pandemic that have impacted their mental health and well-being - anxiety, stress, exhaustion, and burnout, to name a few.  

Although care workers are passionate about their work, the daily challenges and situations they face can negatively impact their stress levels and mental well-being.  

For example:  

• The cost-of-living crisis, coupled with low wages for carers  
• Workload pressures 

• A lack of supportive technology 
• Poor communication between the health and social care sector  

These are just a few factors care workers face.  

Person Centred Software's main aim is to help improve the quality of life for people in social care. For International Stress Awareness Week, Person Centred Software wanted to give attention to the concerning statistics provided by CQC and advise on innovative and sustainable technological solutions that can help reduce the statistics in the years to come. 

Interoperability across health and social care systems 

The GP Connect service is a good example of interoperability and massively helps care providers save time; it uses standards that enable interoperability between different clinical systems, enabling the secure sharing of patient records across primary care. Person Centred Software’s GP Connect integration enables care providers to access GP records and medical notes of those being supported in real-time.    

''Thanks to GP Connect, our care team no longer has to spend time waiting to get through to GP surgeries. The GP Connect service allows instant access to GP Patient records in real-time; our care team can view all the important information they need, from prescriptions and vaccine history to specimen results, referrals, and much more. By accessing GP Connect, we have gained a great deal of knowledge about our residents, which has completely changed our documentation process. It's a fantastic piece of software!'' 

Cliff Grand-Scrutton, Director & General Manager of Larchfield House 

Interoperability across health and social care systems means that patients can receive treatment and care faster by avoiding delays.  Interoperability will streamline care, promote patient-centred care, and reduce healthcare costs.  It will also give health and social care professionals access to the right data and technology to make more informed decisions and help to create a more agile workforce with care workers and nurses easily moving between roles in the NHS and the care sector. 

Integrating health and social care services has been a long-standing goal for many years, with several government policies being written and published in the last decade.  Person Centred Software's long-standing goal is to integrate health and social care services to improve the quality of care and enable a better journey for people when they move between services.   

Why will digital technologies improve the standard of care?  

Care providers must do what they can to reduce the work burden on their staff without compromising the quality of care. Using digital technologies, such as Person Centred Software’s Digital Care System, will dramatically improve the standard of care by:  

• Enhancing safety in clinical care - by providing authorised carers with a documented record that is always available. 
• Improving CQC reports  
• Minimising hospital admissions - health and care professionals have more information about the individual; more knowledge can help make better decisions. 

• Enhancing data security and digital audit trail 
• Accessing residents' information at any time, ensuring care providers are better informed to deliver quality care   
• Increasing care home uptake for adopting the Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT) allows care providers to integrate an array of digital tools 
• Using the DSPT - increases onboarding and usage of the NHSmail, which improves relationships and secure communications across health and adult social care 
• Reducing the number of phone calls and manual requests for resident information 

Ease the stress by going digital 

If you're a care provider: 

• Still using paper records and need guidance on going digital 
• Already using care planning software and looking to switch systems 
• Wanting to learn more about the Digitising Social Care Records Programme 

Download Person Centred Software's handy guide on going digital.  

Click here to download the guide