This week we had our welcome and introduction to CoCare with the care staff at an extra care facility in Southwark.
It’s the beginning of a three month trial and the next phase in the development of CoCare which will overturn the way that we monitor and commission home care.
Hard pressed
Care workers are hard pressed. They’re overworked and underpaid. They are often little respected. The care workers we spoke with today were initially sceptical about another initiative or a tool that they might easily guess has been introduced to monitor and measure them.
But we talked to them about how CoCare was designed from scratch with care workers, with family members and with care managers to find a simple, low-burden way to monitor care. Not to micro-manage to care workers, but to keep everyone in the care network, from professionals to family members to people who need care themselves to focus on the most important part of the network – the person who needs care.
What is CoCare?
CoCare is an app and information portal designed to capture the information that matters the most – information about people’s well-being, their social care needs and health conditions. It’s an easy-to-use information platform, too with messages that help families stay informed and notes and workflow for professionals to share vital information. Reporting is designed to help develop better care for individuals and better contracting with care providers – and supporting outcomes based commissioning.
Smart monitoring
Smart monitoring is being investigated by many – and there’s plenty of good reason to do so. But we shouldn’t forget the smartest care monitors we have – the people who care for others. CoCare helps to capture the wisdom and experience of care workers and their observations in people’s homes – without a lot of complicated forms or time consuming tick boxes.
We’re working with care workers in Southwark to make sure that CoCare is as effective as it can be. And we’ll share that story with you as we go.
Looking for pioneers
We’re still looking for pioneers to work with us on the next stages of CoCare development. Find out more on our CoCare page or by contacting ingrid.koehler@lgiu.org.
