Case study:

02 August 2007

Macmillan Carers Project – cancer and palliative care education workshops in South Devon

Key points

Liz Gibbons, a Macmillan Cancer and Palliative Care Education Lead, has developed a series of workshops in South Devon for domiciliary carers looking after cancer and palliative care clients wishing to remain in their own home.

The workshops – part of a strategy to provide five workshops a year for the next three years – have proved popular and there is some evidence that knowledge, skills and attitudes have improved as a result.

The aim is to provide information about local cancer and palliative care services as well as offering an introduction to end of life care and the Liverpool Care Pathway.

Participants receive a handbook, which includes comprehensive information and contacts relating to general and specialist palliative care as well as the LCP and GSF.

Each workshop is led by a team of two trained facilitators recruited from specialist services.

The project is led by the Macmillan cancer and palliative care lead who is employed by the acute trust but works across acute, primary and specialist service organisations.

Evaluation of one of this year’s workshops showed that whereas before the programme 88% of participants had ‘little or no understanding of end of life initiatives and the Liverpool Care Pathway in particular’, two months afterwards 100% said they had ‘learnt a lot’ about both.

Engaging with agency and social services managers in different care trusts at a time of significant change has posed a challenge.

It has therefore been important to review the content regularly to ensure there is no overlap and that the workshops are still meeting an unmet need.

It is now planned to adapt the workshop programme to the needs of care home health care assistants and to provide local domiciliary care managers with a workshop toolkit.

It is also hoped to share the workshop model with colleagues nationally.