Do you believe in fate?

Another interesting tube map cover for the year.

Asians from generations have read ones fate from ones palm.

People do ask to see your palm and I often refuse to show

as I don't want to know about my future.

Isn't life more interesting to see how it flows?

Family Meeting

I have attended a family meeting for one of my brain injury service user (su)
which was organised by my service user's youngest daughter's counsellor.
I was very impressived with the effort of all the professionals who attended
the meeting and especially all the family members including the three children!


I will list the attendees to give you an idea of who and what was discussed to
support my SU and her family. However, due to confidentiality, I am not
able to discuss the details of the meeting but it was good to have everyone at one table
to think about a way forward. It is going to be a VERY gradual process for my SU.

-Physical Disabilities senior practitioner
-Physical Disabilities social worker- that's me and we are funding the residential placement
-Mental Health Nurse
-Occupational Therapist
-Staff from my service user's current residential placement
-Daughter's play therapist
-Service user's advocate (voluntary sector)
-Family- husband, mother-in-law, three children (4y/ 9y/ 13y)
-My service user could not attend


A sunny evening after a busy day is always welcomed.

Guy's Hospital

News on HIV

For my and other people's information....I have copied and pasted an email.

NAT would like to highlight a new report, Fluctuating Symptoms of HIV, which I hope you will find useful in your role as Director of Adult Social Care.

The findings illustrate the dramatic impact of fluctuating symptoms and side-effects including fatigue, depression and anxiety, gastro-intestinal problems and insomnia have on people living with HIV.  Fluctuation has not been a focus of HIV research to date and NAT is concerned that the impact it has on quality of life is often overlooked - including in social care needs assessments.
 
We are particularly concerned that the complex and variable nature of these health problems means they do not easily align with the approach to long-term conditions used within assessments.  I would like to highlight the following recommendation from the report:

At present, high eligibility thresholds prevent many people with HIV from accessing social care, even when they have clear health-related support needs.  Assessment criteria should consider the impact of fluctuation and the cumulative impact of multiple, lower-level symptoms on people living with HIV.

Social care is vital for helping people with HIV who experience such symptoms stay well, avoiding the need for greater support in future.  NAT urges local authorities to take greater consideration of these health impacts when assessing people with HIV for social care.  For more information on the importance of HIV social care, you can download our recent report on the impact of social care support for people living with HIV.

New Diagnosis

I was on duty from Friday which was a killer when I was still so jetlagged!

I actually could not stay till 5pm and my colleagues have been covering

the last hour for me.

I did not process many cases but took all the calls as it kept me awake.

A service user who I worked with over a year rang and my admin passed the

call to me as she is very difficult to understand over the telephone.

She always sounds drunk in fact 10 out of 8 times she is sober,

few of her front teeth are missing which makes her sound drunk when she is not.

So I have been taking a lot of her calls though I am no longer allocated to

the case. It has been awhile I spoke to her and she broke a very

bad news that she is now diagnosed with lung cancer!

She does smoke a lot but that is bad news. I have not took such a

phone call for a long time, and it was painful as I know her quite well.

The call made me think cancer hits anyone at anytime.

I was pretty calm and knowing her I knew what to say to her today

but it was a very sad moment. There was no immediate action required

at this stage but it is the progress that is going to change her life.

I get to appreciate about life more whenever I encounter moments like this

and I try to put my thoughts into action without hesitation

as life is sometimes so short to wait.....

but there are certain things in life you have to wait for.

Is there anything I am waiting for now?