The 21 – 27th June is Love Your Lungs Week 2023. Every year, Asthma & Lung UK (formerly the British Lung Foundation) campaigns to raise awareness for lung health, and we are pleased to be supporting them.
Our lungs, just like our heart, joints, and other parts of our body, age with time. By adopting certain healthy habits, we can better maintain the strength and flexibility of our lungs, and keep them working better for longer. That’s why we have created a calendar with a hints and tips on improving your lung capacity and your overall lung health. We will have challenges throughout this week, so make sure you follow our Facebook Page for more details.
NHSGGC Staff Guidance – Money Worries
Asking and responding to patients’ money worries is part of Inequalities Sensitive Practice, which is about taking into account each patient’s social circumstances and how they are affecting their health. It also relates to person centred care.
Advice On Money Worries – Who is it for?
Money advice support is for patients, parents/carers or staff of all ages, regardless of their working status.
Why is it important?
With the recession and changes to the benefits system, many of our patients are experiencing money difficulties and mounting debts. The COVID-19 pandemic has also created additional financial worries for many people.
This is important to health services as in addition to being a cause of poor health, money worries can also be a barrier to engaging fully with our services.
“I observe this again and again – that I cannot address medical issues as I have to deal with the patients’ agenda first, which is getting money to feed and heat.” GP
By asking a simple question and providing assistance on where to get help, we can do a lot to prevent unnecessary worry and anxiety.
The Improvement Service provide a short film aimed at healthcare professionals outlining the link between poor health and money worries.
Money Worries: In Sickness & In Health
What Kind of Advice is Available?
If your patients are facing financial difficulties, they should not pay for advice. You can help your patients to use the free, high quality services available across NHSGGC which offer help with:
Maximising Income
Debt Advice
Benefits
Savings
Banking
Budgeting
Evidence shows that referring patients to these services can result in improved mental health, increased income, debt reduction, increased financial planning and reduced stress.
How Do I Ask About Money Worries?
If done sensitively, patients value being asked about money problems and referred to Money Advice Services. It only takes a few minutes to do and can be incorporated easily into patient assessment as part of a person centred approach. Most NHSGGC assessment forms cover money worries.
“Do you have any money or debt worries?
“Would you like to speak with an advisor to discuss money worries or help you to claim any benefits that you may be entitled to?”
“Is having a baby adding financial pressure?”
These type of standard questions for introducing the topic of money worries are used in the community setting. Similar questions are used in hospitals, where staff need to establish whether the patients has any immediate work/money related concerns as a result of their health condition.
If you are working with groups of people it is good practice to discuss people’s health in the context of their life circumstances. Money and debt worries are a major issue for many people and should always be covered in these discussions.
How Do I Make a Referral?
Where patients have issues relating to money worries and debt, the role of staff is to:
The Money Helper website offers information and advice on budget planning and improving your finances, including tools and calculators to help you plan ahead.
Home Energy Crisis Response Service
NHSGGC has launched a Home Energy Crisis Response Service for patients in Acute and mental health care.
The dramatic increase in home energy costs means that many more people’s health is at risk due to fuel poverty. Patients may be struggling to heat their homes or have had their power disconnected, resulting in damp, cold housing and all the associated health impacts. It can also mean that patients cannot return safely to their homes after a hospital stay.
The new service targets patients who need help with home energy in order to return home safely from a hospital stay without the worry of the additional health consequences of living in a cold, damp home.
Delivered via hospital engagement and remote assistance, the service will tackle energy emergencies, advocate on behalf of patients with energy providers and help with access to external home energy emergency funds.
Who is Eligible?
A person is eligible if they – • are a patient or carer accessing or receiving care from an NHSGCC Hospital • have any immediate or emergency need relating to meeting home energy costs • are experiencing poverty/financial difficulties.
To access this service there is no requirement to be receiving any additional benefits.
SIS staff will also discuss any wider needs with the patient or carer and ensure onward referral to the appropriate support services.
For Mental Health Acute, referrals can be made directly to the service: Email: energycrisis@moneymattersweb.co.uk Telephone: 0141 445 7614
Home Energy Advisors
As part of this service, a Home Energy adviser is now based at various hospital sites throughout the week. The service is available Monday–Friday across all NHSGGC hospitals.
Impact on health
The recent Marmot Review ‘Fuel Poverty, Cold Homes and Health Inequalities’ highlighted the dangerous consequences of living in a cold home to a child’s health and future life expectancy.
It predicts increases in asthma and other respiratory illness; circulatory problems; mental health problems and a worsening of other existing medical conditions such as diabetes, musculoskeletal and rheumatological conditions, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The Marmot Review characterises fuel poverty as a ‘significant humanitarian crisis with thousands of lives lost and millions of children’s development blighted’.
We hope this project will help to save lives in Greater Glasgow and Clyde as well as mitigate against adverse health consequences.
Gender-Based Violence (National Guidelines)
What Health Workers Need to Know
This guidance is intended for use by service managers and staff members who, in the course of their work, are involved in identifying and responding to gender-based violence.
Gender-based Violence National Guidelines – What health workers need to know
If you require this or any other NHS information in another format, such as large print or braille, or in another language, please use the contact details on your patient leaflet or letter or contact us.
Spoken Language – Face to Face or Telephone Interpreting
You are entitled to an interpreter for all NHS services, including hospital and GP appointments, dentists, opticians, chiropodists, pharmacists etc. A member of staff must provide the interpreter for you.
During COVID restrictions, face to face interpreting using PPE equipment is still permitted in some circumstances. However, telephone interpreting will be used unless this is not appropriate for the particular patient or appointment. Attend Anywhere / Near me video interpreting is also available for spoken language interpreting.
The following leaflet states your right to an interpreter and explains to staff how they should go about this if they are unsure. You can print it off, or contact us for a copy to carry with you when attending appointments. Click here for more information
British Sign Language – Face to Face or Online Interpreting Services
The NHS has a responsibility to make sure that BSL interpreting support is provided for you when you use our services. Please ensure that your Clinician/GP is aware that you require interpreting so that they can arrange this with as much notice as possible.
The BSL Online interpreting service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means that in an unplanned or emergency situation, staff can quickly link up to an interpreter at any time and communicate with their Deaf patient. It can also be used during hospital stays, or to enable Deaf patients to communicate with staff if waiting for a face to face interpreter to arrive. BSL Online is now available at hospital sites across NHSGGC.
During COVID restrictions, face to face BSL interpreting using PPE equipment is still permitted. However, we may suggest the use of video interpreting to facilitate the appointment if this is considered a safer option.
Video recording of NHSGGC Care Homes webinar 12th May 2022
The Healthier Wealthier Children (HWC) project continues to provide evidence of financial gain, debt reduction and reduced stress for NHS patients.
Since its launch in 2010, this NHS led child poverty initiative has resulted in over £60 million pounds going back into the pockets of local families with over 45,000 referrals to money advice services from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde staff.
The initiative has meant that many people are now receiving welfare benefits they were unaware they were entitled to. Debts have been written off and sanctions appealed successfully. Families have had access to grants and assistance with dealing with food and fuel poverty.
All NHSGGC midwives, health visitors, family nurses and specialist children’s service are now asking about money and debt worries routinely and referring to money advice services as part of day to day care.
The project has now been mainstreamed across all NHSGGC areas:
maintaining Children & Families referral pathways to money advice services
awareness sessions on money worries, child poverty and welfare reform for NHS staff
monitoring outcomes of the Healthier Wealthier Children approach
mainstreaming group work programmes
In addition, from October 2021 there is a national roll-out of primary care money advice for areas of highest deprivation. Some patients with children will access this service. NHSGGC has five Health & Social Care Partnerships involved: East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
The Healthier Wealthier Children model is cited as a requirement of Scotland’s Child Poverty action plan and similar models have been developed in London as as far afield as Sweden and Australia.
We want to ask, listen and do what matters to people every day.
On or around the 6th June each year, we have an extra focus on raising awareness and encouraging these sorts of conversations between people who receive care, the people who matter most to them, and staff. This is ‘What matters to You?’ (WMTY) Day.
This has now become an international movement with many countries around the world participating. Asking WMTY is easy and involves three simple steps:
Ask What Matters;
Listen to What Matters;
Do What Matters.
Information for people receiving care and their families
WMTY is all about encouraging more meaningful conversations between people.
To help you get the best possible outcome, we need to understand the things that are really important to you. This could be something very specific or something more general. Here are some examples of the types of things people have talked about:
“It’s really important that my granddaughter is involved in discussions about my support. She is the main person in my life!”
“I can’t focus on my therapy because I’m so worried about who is looking after my mum while I’m in hospital”
There is no wrong answer to this question – it’s all about what is most important to you.
We want to know what matters most to you, so we can provide care that works for you. You can:
This person centred approach can help in a number of ways. First and foremost it can help to establish a relationship, but it also helps you to understand more about the person and the things that are most important to them. With this insight you will be in a better place to work with them to find the best way forward.
This video from Healthcare Improvement Scotland explains more about the WMTY approach:
The Person Centred Health and Care Team speak to people currently receiving care about their experience of care.
Each month we support clinical teams to look at what people receiving care are telling them, to design improvement plans to take forward ideas and suggestions to improve care.
This is the real-time Care Experience Improvement Model. You can find further information about the model from Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
