Our first one-day jointly-run Advanced Care Planning (ACP) training day took place recently - and is on offer to health and social care and voluntary sector staff working in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthcare Partnership area.

Specialist Frailty Nurse, Nicola Raven, said: "Not talking about death and dying doesn’t stop it from happening. 

"Avoiding such discussions means we don’t give people the opportunity to discuss what is happening to them.

"Talking about it is important, and in order to do so, frontline workers need to be skilled and unafraid to have the conversation"

Colleagues need to know about the whole process, how to have the conversations, document the choices and share them appropriately, with consent, and this programme addresses all these aspects of Advance Care Planning, and more!

ACP is relevant to all health and social care professionals who work with people and their families in any care setting. As a society we shy away from talking about the end of our lives. This taboo was acknowledged as one of the five major streams of work required to implement the End of Life Strategy and the ‘Dying Matters’ Coalition was created as a result.

Things participants in the first session found most useful included:

            “Opening up what ACP is and how important it is.”

Key messages people took away were:

            “The importance of having an advance care plan in place and how to stress the relevance to both client and family.”

The course is being run collaboratively between Ward Sister, Elderly Care HRI Jo Hughes, Nicola and Clinical Educator from Overgate Hospice, Karen Hagreen.. 

Pictured here are Karen Hagreen, Renee Comerford, Nurse Consultant, Frailty and Nicola Raven.