What is the RQIA and what does the RQIA stand for?
RQIA stands for Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority, an independent body that regulates, registers, and inspects the availability and quality of Northern Ireland’s health and social care (HSC) services.
The purpose of the RQIA is to assure the quality of care, challenge poor practice, and safeguard the rights of service users. The RQIA aims to uphold public confidence in health and social care through independent, proportionate and responsible regulation.
The RQIA has three key responsibilities:
- To register and inspect independent and statutory health and social care services.
- To assure the quality of services provided by health and social care.
- To assess services provided to people with mental ill health and learning disabilities.
The RQIA measures its effectiveness through four stakeholder outcomes:
- Is care safe?
- Is care effective?
- Is care compassionate?
- Is the service well-led?
This article will provide a comprehensive overview of the RQIA’s role in regulating health and social care in Northern Ireland, particularly in relation to home care, care homes and nursing homes. The final section will examine how software solutions can help with regulatory compliance.
The most common causes of falls in the elderly include poor eyesight and hearing, weak muscles, slow reflexes, low blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, arthritis, and depression. Furthermore, some medications may cause dizziness or confusion which increase an elderly person’s risk of falling.
Around one in three people aged 65 or older fall each year. In addition to the risk of injury, falls can cause an elder person to develop an ongoing fear of falling. This fear can cause them to avoid activity, making their muscles weak, thus further increasing their risk of falling.
Through understanding the causes of falls, social care providers can be better placed to conduct a fall risk assessment and implement appropriate fall prevention strategies.
While falls can affect people of all ages, they are a particular concern for the elderly. This article will focus on the causes of elderly falls and conclude with a look at how technology enabled care (TEC) can reduce the risk of falls.
Housing Events in 2024 offer a wide range of insights into how key stakeholders can better tackle housing challenges across the country, and Housing 2024 was no different.
With co-production being one of the key messages from Housing 2024, it is clear that improvements to housing problems will only improve when stakeholders in the housing sector communicate with each other and individuals to concentrate on what matters to them.
Whether it’s preventing homelessness, creating net zero homes, better managing ageing populations, making housing more accessible, or supporting independent living, providing support that the individual wants, needs, and requires is vital.
So what were the key takeaways from Housing 24 and what are the next steps to integrate housing, health, and social care?
This article will review some of the key insights and next steps in providing and creating virtual homes that cater to every individual need by continuously involving them in every housing decision being made.
Insight data is valuable across all industries. Turning data into insight and then into action enables industries to drive better outcomes and results, and actionable health and social care insights are no different.
Having actionable health and social care insights are vital to transforming care deliveries from reactive to proactive and preventative. Here better outcomes-focused care can be delivered concentrating on what matters to the individual.
But what are actionable insights? And how can care providers, turn data into actionable insights to deliver better-coordinated care?
At Access Technology Enabled Care we know that an estimated 2 million users have either a telecare or a technology enabled care device and that this number will continue to rise as more individuals live with more than one long-term condition.
We know and understand the increased pressure to reach the rising demand, so we want to make it easier to capture all data insights in one place to enable better data-driven decisions before something more critical takes place, to increase independence, provide reassurance, and most importantly improve quality of life.
By the end of this article, you will know and understand all there is to know about capturing, monitoring, and utilising actionable insights to improve care outcomes and how at Access Technology Enabled Care we put the individual at the heart of every decision to ensure a better quality of life.
Having a CQC visit checklist in place allows all services within the health and social care sector to be prepared when it comes to CQC inspections.
In health and social care, the scrutiny of regulatory bodies ensures that the quality and safety of care services do not fall below a certain threshold. In England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the regulatory body and it plays a crucial role in encouraging care services to improve while providing safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care.
CQC inspections are thorough assessments that are carried out to ensure care services are meeting the essential standards of quality and safety. To prepare for the inspections and to maintain or even improve standards, care services often carry out a mock CQC inspection. This is basically a rehearsal for the real thing and highlights areas that are doing well and areas that need to be improved before the real thing is carried out.
At The Access Group, we have over 30 years of experience working with care services across the UK and we know the importance of being prepared for regulatory body inspections. This article contains information on the importance of CQC mock inspections, what they are and how to carry them out correctly. With our help, we hope that you’ll feel confident and prepared with our CQC inspection checklist.
Safeguarding elderly with dementia is essential for protecting the health, well-being and human rights of individuals that use the care system. These are usually the most vulnerable so need protection more than ever. In the UK, safeguarding is a vital practice to ensure that everyone, particularly vulnerable adults, children and young people, live lives free from abuse, harm and neglect.
We at The Access Group pride ourselves on the security and safety that our software has to offer. We have been working with care services throughout the country for the past 30 years and aim to improve the lives of everyone who utilise our platforms. Over the years, our experience has allowed us to create content like this that can be used to aid and protect people working and living in care.
The article delves into the intricacies of safeguarding, with a particular focus on dementia safeguarding. We will explore how to protect those affected by this condition and the policies and procedures you can put in place to support them and their carers.
A successful work-life balance is so important in whatever role you are in, being a care worker is known for being very rewarding, but also emotionally and physically demanding.
Many carers go ‘above and beyond’ what might be expected of them. While this is admirable it is important to maintain a balance. Not having that respite could result in social care losing some of its best people.
Staff retention in social care is extremely important when it comes to ensuring consistent high-quality care and maintaining the well-being of both caregivers and service users. Caring for vulnerable people is an enormously demanding job that can lead to staff burnout and high turnover rates if care staff aren’t receiving a sufficient amount of support in their role. Losing members of the team can have a detrimental effect on the overall performance of a care service and the comfort of their service users.
By investing in the wellbeing of your workforce, your care service will be best placed to deliver continuous exceptional care which will boost the overall success and rating of the business. We at The Access Group have been working with care services for over 30 years, helping them adapt to a digital way of life, and have seen how different care services are able to better retain staff than others. This article explores the effective strategies to retain care staff, why it’s important to do so and how digitisation can help.
A fall risk assessment should be considered for anyone who is elderly or suffering from a disability. The risk assessment is conducted by a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, or exercise therapist, and involves using a risk assessment tool that considers a person’s individual risk factors.
While fall risk assessments tend to be focused on the elderly, falls can affect all age groups including the young and middle-aged. Irrespective of age, falls can lead to injury and loss of confidence, to the detriment of a person’s wellbeing, confidence, and quality of life.
In this article we will explain what falls risk assessments involve, compare different types of falls risk assessments, and examine the best falls risk assessment tools. Finally we will have a look at how technology enabled care (TEC) can offer a solution for people assessed as having a high falls risk.
Fall prevention is best tackled with a multifaceted approach. This includes traditional methods such as promoting healthy lifestyles, strengthening family and social networks, and facilitating functional exercise programmes. Looking forward, fall detection technology is progressing rapidly and offers new and innovative devices for preventing falls.
While falls are a major concern for the elderly, they can affect people of all ages. There are a number of risk factors that make falls more likely. These include underlying medical conditions, side effects of medication, poor mobility, low blood pressure, and dehydration.
But are falls preventable?
The answer is a resounding yes. Falls are not a normal part of ageing, and they can be prevented using interventions that are proven and evidence based. A study of randomised trials in fall prevention found a variety of effective interventions including strength training, Tai Chi, home modification, and withdrawal of psychotropic medications.
This article discusses the most effective strategies regarding falls and fall prevention and concludes with a look at the latest fall prevention solutions, including technology enabled care (TEC).
