A training package about Huntington's disease for funding assessors.
As part of our campaign to strengthen care, John, the Training Lead for the Huntington’s Disease Association and Alex Fisher, Specialist Occupational Therapist, delivered three training sessions to Continuing Health Care nurse assessment teams.
"A recent report by the Nuffield Trust in which they interviewed families and professionals with multiple conditions called it an ‘adversarial’ process. This means that to get it is a bit of a fight.” - Alex
Continuing Health Care (CHC) is free NHS funding for those with significant healthcare needs. Continuing healthcare assessments look at all aspects of a person's care - nutrition, breathing, skin, continence, mental health and their ability to comply with the care they need.
Continuing Health Care requires substantial evidence. This is just one of the many challenges the Huntington’s community faces. We are trying to change this. As well as the training, we have also worked with Alex to create a guide to help health and social care professionals conduct fair and accurate CHC assessments.
John and Alex delivered the sessions to a total of 115 attendees in Birmingham, Dorset/Somerset and Merseyside/Cheshire. The sessions concentrated on how Huntington's disease symptoms relate to the care domains used in continuing healthcare assessments. The aim of the sessions was to provide assessors with the knowledge and understanding needed to be able to undertake full and fair continuing healthcare assessments for people with Huntington's disease. One attendee said:
I can honestly say that this was one of the best and most informative training sessions I have been on in years. The level was just right and really helped illuminate the specific challenges that people with Huntington's Disease face. I learned so many things that I did not know before and I know this will greatly improve my work with people with the condition. The trainers were really engaging and I loved the delivery style.
This was another great opportunity to talk about Huntington’s disease to healthcare professionals. We continue offering training sessions to ensure healthcare professionals are equipped to understand Huntington’s disease.