Aim
Contribute to the national ambition to reduce the severe avoidable harm associated with medicines.
Objectives
The Medicines Safety Programme aims to address the most important causes of severe harm associated with medicines, most of which have been known about for years but continue to challenge our health and care systems. The programme affects safety culture, safety systems and high-risk medicines in common use. It brings the science of continuous safety improvement to bear on this complex problem.
This years commission is year two of a three year initiative and will see all PSCs to continue to deliver the “Reducing harm from psychotropics used for behaviour that challenges in people with Learning Disability” priority.
Driver Diagram
Key principles for the delivery of this priority are:
- Management of behaviour that challenges require proactive care planning and shared decision making with patients and their carers/ advocates, that incorporates non-pharmacological management* to reduce over prescribing of psychotropics and the associated avoidable harm.
- Multi-agency, system working is vital to ensure a co-ordinated approach that enables holistic support and improved accessibility across the entire pathway of care.
- A recognised challenge is how to balance short- and long-term health needs and goals in this patient group, weighing up the risk vs benefits of using psychotropics which is often complicated by a fear of destabilisation and variability in access to non-pharmacological management*.
*e.g. Positive Behavioural Support (PBS), sensory integration, social prescribing and psychological approaches including mindfulness and lifestyle interventions.
Past programmes & resources
Health Innovation North West Coast has also worked with the care home sector to develop quality improvement methods.
We have been working with the NHS England and Improvement Safety Improvement Programmes for Managing Deterioration and Medicines Safety to reduce deterioration and medication-related harm in care homes in the North West Coast.
In addition Health Innovation North West Coast has previously supported the following programmes of work: