Safe observation

I thought I’d pop down my thoughts on safe monitoring of complex children when you are lone working……. All the children I support need 1-1 support, often 24hrs a day due to their breathing, epilepsy and medical needs. This is sounds great and achievable. But when you are working on your own how do you do this? What are your expectations as the carer? What are the family’s expectations? What do other professionals expect and consider acceptable?

Being totally honest, I feel that most of the time this is easy to achieve until you need to use the toilet yourself, or you need to visit another room to gather medication/feed for the child. Then, how do you make it safe?

Here are my top-tips but this is only relevant to the current children I support. Every child and home is different so this will change constantly, but they key principles of keeping everyone safe first will always be my priority.

*I always ensure my visits out of the space with the child are at a minimum and are necessary.

*I will use technology to support me: monitoring camera for when the child is asleep, SATS monitor to alert if there is a change, etc.

*I reduce the noise in the room where the child is when I pop out to get meds, for example. I will often turned the TV volume down so I can hear for coughing or seizures.

*If the child is asleep, I will use this opportunity to have lunch or, more importantly, a coffee (or two).

What do you do? What else do I do that I do without realising? What have I missed?

Safety first - always