Planning person-centred care for home care clients

Person-centred care is important for clients receiving home care as it puts them at the centre of decisions made regarding their care. Where possible, person-centred care planning empowers people to act as an equal partners in ensuring that the support they receive meets their needs, goals and outcomes.

Careful planning ensures home care providers have the processes in place to provide person-centred support from the moment a client is onboarded into their service. 

Within organisations, standardising person-centred care can be difficult. 

Knowledge, experience and understanding of clients’ individualised needs may be buried in paper care plans, misinterpreted as they are communicated by word-of-mouth between carers, or lost along the way as care workers move on to pastures new.  

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Want to know more about our Plan features? Request a copy of our digital care planning guide for more information about how IQ:caremanager is helping home care businesses like yours, to plan.

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How software can ensure that person-centred care is planned, maintained and improved

IQ:caremanager has been developed alongside care providers of all types and sizes. From multi-branch organisations to smaller services – our feature set offers dynamic functionality that ensures that the services and care you provide meet client needs in a more person-centred way.

Building understanding through comprehensive Client Records 

With IQ:caremanager, good Client Records underpin the behind-the-scenes technology that helps you to plan the most person-centred visits possible. Details in client records include medical history, allergies, important contacts, key safe codes, access arrangements, the complexity of care, protected status, sexuality, approved and non-approved carers (e.g. personalities or mismatch), RAG statuses, and the qualifications and experience required to care for that client.

Creating a complete picture of skills and knowledge through Carer Records

Similarly, Carer Records inform the system about key carer details such as training and qualifications, location, language, gender and experience. Together, these records ensure that the client’s needs are met by carers with the appropriate skills, qualifications, experience or personal qualities that a client wants or needs.

Utilising RAG status in care management software

RAG, an anagram for Red, Amber, and Green, is a status classification tool used in IQ:caremanager to denote the criticality of a client’s care needs. Based on a UK traffic light, RAG indicators help care agencies prioritise and use resources more wisely to ensure the most pressing needs are prioritised. 

In IQ:caremanager, people and the services they receive can have an individual RAG rating. In practice, this means that a person with complex needs may be classed as red (high priority), their care service also red, but their cleaning service as green (low priority), which ensures that their most complex needs get assigned first.

Finding the right carer for the right client using Find Carer

Also known as ‘best-match’ or ‘carer-matching’, Find Carer in IQ:caremanager sorts carers based on seven factors – creating a filtered list of the most suitable carers for a visit. 

Characteristics taken into consideration include client preference, carer availability, whether the carer has previously visited the client, distance, qualifications and if they have been previously approved. The system presents a list in order of suitability and explains why that carer is a good match – ensuring you pick the carer that can offer the best care possible.

Giving carers the Gold Star

Sometimes good care is based on more than simple statistics. A carer may have that ‘special something’ that makes them the best choice for a particular visit. It may be an unmistakable natural rapport with a client, a shared passion for the same hobby or a depth of experience with a healthcare need. 

Gold star status can be awarded manually by a care coordinator, highlighting that particular carer as a stand-out choice when using the Find Carer feature.

Empowering clients to approve their carers

Approved carers, non-approved carers and barred carers are status indicators in IQ:caremanager that can help care coordinators consistently choose the right carers for the client in question. 

Carers gain the approved status when they have visited a client before or been assigned to a visit and match the client’s requirements. Notes and reasons can be added to the record as to why they are approved  (such as positive client/family feedback) and can help coordinators quickly choose a suitable carer for a future visit.

Non-approved carers are those who don’t match a client’s requirements (or it is undetermined). A carer is classed as non-approved until they have visited the client or been assigned to a visit, or have been barred. It is also a useful tool to use if a carer may have a reason not to visit a particular client such as if they have a pet allergy or are a non-smoker.

Finally, carers can be barred from particular clients to ensure they are not considered for future visits. This can be used for carers and clients that have relationship difficulties or if disciplinary action is underway.

Want to know more about how IQ:caremanager can help improve care planning? Head over to our Plan page.