"The fact that there is now a gold standard for care homes means that there is the possibility that nationwide, the quality of care for people who are dying will change"
Baroness Julia Neuberger
speaking at the GSF Awards
GSF Care Homes Training Programme in the UK
The GSF Care Homes Training programme is the most widely used training programme for care homes in the UK, supporting elderly residents as they near the end of their lives and improving collaboration with GPs and Primary Care teams in the UK.
Since its launch in 2004, almost 4000 care homes have completed the programme and many hundreds have become accredited and re-accredited with the well-recognised GSF Quality Hallmark Award, a nationally recognised kite-mark of quality.
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Effective end of life care training for the whole staff team has been pivotal in improving care and improving the uptake of advance care planning, with reductions in hospital admissions and deaths, enabling more people to live and die where they choose.
Staff confidence and competence is increased, with improvements in care, recognised by families, GPs and the regulator CQC. GSF training was also of great help during the COVID pandemic, when GSF Care Homes were well prepared, with residents having completed their advance care plan and good teamworking with GPs.
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Hundreds of thousands of residents have benefited from GSF in their care home enabling more proactive, personalised, well-coordinated care, in line with the NHSE Long Term Plan (2019), NICE Guidance and other national policy guidance.
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Nursing and Residential Care homes play an ever more pivotal role in the care of people approaching the end of life. One in five deaths now occurs in a care home, predicted to rise as the population ages. It is estimated that on average 80% of residents are in the last year of life and about 50% of hospital admissions of residents from care homes could be avoided with better staff training.
Celebration of GSF Care Homes Programme Relaunch 2014, with key national speakers from CQC and the Houses of Parliament, London
Baroness Neuberger presenting GSF Awards for Care Homes ,describing the value of gold standard care.
GSF Care Homes Programme in a Nutshell
"Without the knowledge and skills that the GSF has brought us, we would not have been in the place that we were at the beginning of COVID19…
One of the greatest aspects that the GSF has given us, is that we do advance care planning discussions with all residents and can discuss prognosis with the medical professionals with the utmost confidence…. we have reduced avoidable hospital admissions …so that the resident stays in their home, surrounded by those they love, trust and care for, right to the end."
JB GSF Accredited Care Homes Northamptonshire
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“GSF has improved what we do immensely and we’ve noticed a major reduction in hospital admissions. In fact, hospitals and hospices are now referring patients to us to look after at the end of their lives."
DP, Manager, Church View
GSF Accredited Care Home
The GSF Care Homes Gold Programme
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GSF is a tried and tested way of delivering transformational change in line with current best practice and helps you in enhancing primary care support and working with GP’s, MDT and in-reach support. It promotes independence and high-quality integrated care in the final days, as well as workforce training and development leading to a more confident team and fewer crisis hospital admissions. It includes:
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Updated training including interactive webinars or workshops over 6-9 months , plus on-line training via the GSF Virtual Learning Zone following a simple plan with 7 key tasks
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Tools, resources, videos, examples from other care homes , useful enablers
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Measures included for comparative data before and after
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Support for facilitators and trainers
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The GSF Care Homes Training Programme is strongly experiential and peer supported, using many real-life examples from homes.
We build on the belief that staff have a special relationship with their residents and aspire to the best, and we wish to affirm and encourage them, building confidence and ability to provide excellence in care.
Although collaboration with specialists, GPs and others is important, this is about the way a care home team itself functions and how the 'Gold Standards' thinking runs through the whole home.
Helen Brewster describes how GSF has helped her care home avoid any out of hours crises.
Experience of GSF Care Home Training in the UK
"The GSF programme builds on years of success involving thousands of care homes, where it has been shown to be transformational, not only for staff but for relatives and residents. GSF helps demystify dying, and encourages everyone to play their part, so staff morale improves and turnover decreases.
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Martin Green
Chief Executive of Care England
"We were so impressed with the standard of care our mum received and the way in which GSF was implemented in the home"
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Relative’s Letter sent to GSF Accredited care home
"GSF helps homes during the COVID Pandemic. Without the knowledge and skills that the GSF has brought us, we would not have been in the place that we were at the beginning of COVID19….
One of the greatest aspects that the GSF has given us, is that we can discuss our residents’ prognosis with the medical professionals with the utmost confidence in relation to end of life care….
Another great achievement was we have reduced avoidable hospital admissions (where possible) so residents stays in their home, surrounded by those they love, trust and care for, right to the end….
And we have succeeded in ensuring that they passed as planned with the right care at the right time, every time. We were not in this place prior to GSF”.
Manager of GSF Accredited Care Home Northampton
Experience of GSF Care Home Training in Other Countries
Australasia
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In Tasmania, Australia and later in Adelaide South Australia, GSF was used with several groups of care homes (Aged Care Facilities) to improve care provided for all residents.
There was great interest in the practical hands-on approach of GSF in many national Aged care groups, and principles of GSF were included in teaching, with use of PIG, PEPSI COLA and of offering advance care planning to all residents.
Further Reading
Singapore
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In Singapore nursing homes GSF principles were well regarded, especially in reducing hospital admissions and offering advance care planning to all residents.
British Columbia, Canada
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"In Canada, there was much interest in GSF, and principles were adopted in many areas for long stay care and generalist provision of care from Ontario to British Columbia."