Staff handover times reduced

Hear Me Now About me screenshot

Smoother and more efficient staff handovers, better use of agency staff time at national learning disability charity Hft. Hft understands that the Hear Me Now (HMN) concept aligns with its vision to support people with learning disabilities to live the best life possible.

Hft is one of the largest and longest established charities supporting people with a learning disability in the UK. People with learning disabilities face obstacles that are hard to imagine – their challenges can be complex and lifelong. Even so, with the right care, support and encouragement, everyone with a learning disability can find more enjoyment, comfort and satisfaction in their lives. That’s why everything Hft does is centred on the people being supported.

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Maldaba partnered with Hft for the NHS Digital Social Care Pathfinder Programme in 2020/21. Although this was a challenging time with the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns and the associated pressures in social care, this stimulated innovation and creativity.

Maldaba worked with Hft’s Personalised Technology (PT) team to train staff within some of Hft’s supported living homes with great success, through a tailored programme delivered virtually. In addition, Maldaba provided staff support with a monthly drop in to help share good practice and support each other to overcome challenges.

Hear Me Now About me screenshot

Lockdown gave all social care providers a significant challenge with staff turnover, requiring new staff to be brought in where possible. Like many providers, Hft relies on agency bank staff to fill these gaps.

Hear Me Now has a feature called “About Me” developed in partnership with the Professional Records Standards Board (PRSB) and it is information standards-compliant. Service users at Hft worked with the staff to diligently complete the About Me information as words, pictures, voice, and video: video was most popular with individuals. People videoed what they liked, how they liked to be treated and information about their behaviours. They included information regarding triggers for good and/or challenging behaviour.

Hear Me Now enabled agency staff to familiarise themselves with the people they were supporting much faster than usual. Because information in Hear Me Now is constantly updated, its information is current. Instead of being presented with ring binders of information, agency staff could engage with people Hft supports, read their notes with them on Hear Me Now, and understand how best to support someone they had not met before. This greatly reduced handover times, and improved the quality of care provided by staff not previously familiar with the person they were supporting.

Outcomes

  • Prior to the use of Hear Me Now, staff had a traditional handover. Hear Me Now provides granular information constantly updated directly from the service user and more readily understood by staff to enable quality support, immediately.
  • The use of Hear Me Now provides better continuity of care in challenging times and reduces the time spent in handover as up-to-date granular information is provided by the service user in formats that they understand and that enable staff to rapidly know how to support someone. This means greater efficiency through better care.

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