PAMIS have received a share of £650,000 which has been invested in 26 Scottish projects to transform support and care for people living with long term conditions in Scotland. PAMIS received £29,260 from the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the Alliance) Self- Management Fund, administered on behalf of the Scottish Government, to deliver a project to improve postural care for people with long term health conditions. PAMIS supports people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) which, due to the nature of their neurological conditions, can result in body shape deterioration. This can be fatal if not managed. Chronic poor posture can lead to health problems such as body shape distortion with secondary difficulties which include respiratory problems, pressure ulcers, pain and compromised digestive systems.

PAMIS will work with family carers and Scottish health professionals to offer families caring for someone with PMLD the opportunity to attend a two day training course on postural care hosted across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Western Isles, Forth Valley, Lothian and Tayside. This will build on the charity’s current Postural Care Ambassador programme and will support interested carers to take on an ambassador role in sharing their experiences with other carers and work in partnership with NHS area practitioners in joint delivery.  PAMIS will support families to complete accreditation where desired and, for those who wish to contribute further, there will be an opportunity to attend a ‘train the trainer’ course.

This programme of training will support family carers to gain knowledge in postural care and encourage relationship building with their health professionals. PAMIS believe engaging family carers as equal partners in care and education of others has shown to be highly effective in the compliance and building of effective relationships between family carers and professionals.

PAMIS CEO Jenny Miller said:

“We are thrilled that this project, instigated nine years ago by a family carer who recognised that her son would have lived a longer and healthier live had she known about effective postural care, is being developed nationally. There has been progress over the last few years in joining up families with health care practitioners to raise awareness and train both family and paid carers and this funding will greatly support the progress of this work. We are hugely grateful to the Alliance and the Scottish Government for this life enhancing approach which clearly demonstrates how dedicated Scotland is in recognising the importance of this work and we firmly believe that Scotland is leading the way”.