Tags: COVID-19

iHV launches COVID-19 professional advice for health visiting

We are delighted to launch a series of COVID-19 professional advice documents today to support the safe and effective delivery of health visiting practice during the global pandemic.

These resources have been developed in partnership with Public Health England by the professional team at the Institute of Health Visiting. We hope that you will find them helpful as we all change the way we work in response to the Government’s “Stay at Home” advice.

The new documents in our Delivering the Health Visitor Healthy Child Programme during the COVID-19 pandemic – Professional advice to support best practice include:

We will be publishing professional advice on Perinatal Mental Health next week.

As the COVID-19 situation is rapidly changing, the information in these resources may change. Please keep checking the Government and NHS websites for details.

New COVID-19 webpages

  • For Health Visitors – These new professional advice documents can be found on our COVID-19 (coronavirus) guidance for health visitors webpage – https://iHV.org.uk/COVID-19
  • For parents and families – The iHV is dedicated to supporting the health and wellbeing of all families and we are putting together links and resources from trusted organisations and websites to support parents and families during the COVID-19 pandemic – please see our Parenting through Coronavirus (COVID-19) webpage – https://iHV.org.uk/ParentingCOVID19

Thank you to every single health visitor and member of a health visiting team across the UK from all of us at the Institute of Health Visiting– we know that you are all going the extra mile to support the children and families in your area. You are all heroes.

We have waivered our usual restrictions on resources for members and the COVID-19 sections of our website are “free access” to all to support the national response to this pandemic.

NEW resource – Parenting Through Coronavirus (COVID-19)

You are not alone

We know that this is a worrying time and it will definitely not be how you had planned your parenting journey. You may have concerns in relation to your pregnancy or your children. You may be wanting to access helpful parenting information.

The iHV is dedicated to supporting the health and wellbeing of all families and we are putting together links and resources from trusted organisations and websites to support you during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will be developing and adding new resources to support families over the coming months, during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond.

Go to links and resources on Parenting Through Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Please share this link (https://ihv.org.uk/ParentingCOVID19) through your networks

We will be regularly updating this page, so please keep checking back for the latest!

24 March – Morning Update – COVID-19

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement last night of more stringent guidance to “Stay at Home”, we know that many of you will be asking questions about how this impacts your families and the important services that you provide. This is also a worrying time for families who may be wanting to access helpful parenting information. The Institute is doing all we can to support the government-led decisions (nationally and locally) by disseminating any guidance as soon as it is published to avoid confusion and mixed messages at this time when clarity is needed.

We have a dedicated COVID-19 section of our website which we are using to provide updates as and when they are received.

Our colleagues at Public Health England and local government are moving at extraordinary pace and scale at this time – we thank and applaud them for all their efforts during the unfolding events of this pandemic.

Following the PM’s announcement last night, the latest advice has been received:

Outline details of priority work is set out in the NHS COVID-19 Prioritisation within Community Health Services published last Friday.  The NHS are currently developing a more detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that will be published soon – the NHS are custodians of the SOP as this avoids confusion, retaining a single line of communication.  It is high level covering all community services (under NHS standard contract). PHE expect that common approach will be applied across all services.

PHE are aware that families understandably do not want home visits so it makes sense to prepare advice ahead of the SOP being published.

Viv Bennett, the Chief Nurse at PHE, has given us the following holding advice: “I think that what is clear is that the presumption should be that contacts will be virtual – skype, facetime and failing that phone call.  There will need to be individual assessment of compelling need for face to face contacts and then decisions re PPE”.

The iHV will be supporting this work by developing guidance for health visitors to address questions like, “What makes an effective virtual visit especially for AN breastfeeding support and NBV”.

We share some of the latest Government guidance on our website – both for families and healthcare professionals:

This information is being regularly reviewed and updated.  We will be adding more content regarding supportive resources for parents and carers in the coming days and weeks make this a repository of best advice for families during these difficult times – so bookmark these pages for any further updates. We have waivered our usual restrictions on resources for members and the COVID-19 sections of our website are “free access” to all to support the national response to this pandemic.

We suggest that you also keep a look out on the government COVID-19 update web pages and contact your local commissioner and Director of Public Health who will be coordinating the response to the NHS guidance in your area.

Free, open access to HEE COVID-19 e-learning programme

Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) has created an e-learning programme in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic that is free to access, without logging in*, for the entire UK health and care workforce, including those working in the NHS, the independent sector and social care.

The programme includes key materials to help the health and care workforce respond to Coronavirus.

The Coronavirus programme currently includes limited resources, but we will add more content in the coming days and weeks. The additional content will include new sessions and content curated from different sources such as existing HEE e-LfH sessions and materials from other organisations such as NHS England and NHS Improvement or the World Health Organization.

Content in the Coronavirus programme currently includes:

  • Essential Guidance from the NHS, Government and WHO
  • Infection Prevention and Control
  • Personal Protection Equipment
  • Critical Care Resources
  • RCGP learning
  • Invasive Ventilation
  • Intensive Care Medicine
  • Anaesthesia
  • Induction of International and Returning GPs
  • Statutory and Mandatory Training

*HEE e-LfH has removed the requirement to log in to access the Coronavirus (COVID-19) programme to make it as easy as possible for the health and care workforce to access the learning resources.  However, be aware that accessing the content without logging in means that your learning activity won’t be tracked and you won’t create a learning record.  If you wish to have a learning record to demonstrate your compliance you will need to have an e-LfH account and be logged in. You can register for an e-LfH account using any email address.

For more information about the programme, which is free for the health and care workforce to access without the need to register, visit www.e-lfh.org.uk/coronavirus.

Go to HEE e-LfH Coronavirus e-learning

Another HEE resource, SCRIPT e-learning, is now freely available to anyone with a NHS email address.  For more information visit www.safepresciber.org, email [email protected] and or follow @safeprescriber on Twitter.

NHS guidance – COVID-19 Prioritisation within Community Health Services

Health visiting during COVID-19

We have received numerous enquiries from health visitors asking for greater clarity for the health visiting service during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Institute is doing all we can to expedite this information for the profession and have a dedicated COVID-19 section of our website which we are using to provide updates as and when they are received. However, at the moment the content still lacks this much needed detail for health visitors’ roles.

We have contacted Public Health England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Public Health to highlight the need for advice to manage the numerous queries that we are receiving from health visitors, including service leads around emergency planning and escalation for the health visiting service – things like, “should we carry on with universal contacts?” “Will I be redeployed? And if so, when?” “What about families who have safeguarding concerns or high levels of vulnerability?” “Am I in a priority key-worker group?” etc…

The latest update that we have received from Public Health England is that the NHS is leading on drafting guidance on community services including health visiting. PHE and local government have provided advice and we are awaiting publication.  We will alert our members and followers when we receive advice that it has been published – hopefully very soon. As there is considerable pressure and pace within the healthcare system due to the pandemic, we suggest that you also keep a look out on the government COVID-19 update web pages and contact your local commissioner and Director of Public Health who will be coordinating the response to the NHS guidance in your area.

Our position at the iHV is that we need to support the government-led decisions (nationally and locally) rather than issuing our own guidance which may cause confusion and mixed messages at this time when clarity is needed.

We will continue to do all that we can to help.

A big thank you to everyone working in health visiting at this time. You are all doing an amazing job during the uncertainties of the COVID-19 situation – it is comforting to know that we have great teams of people who care so much about the communities they work in, and the health and wellbeing of families.

iHV office statement in response to COVID-19

The iHV is taking the following actions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak:

  • From Thursday 19 March, the iHV administration office will be temporarily closed, with our iHV office staff working remotely. We are moving our operations online/ video conferencing, so we’re continuing our work, and you can still get in touch with us via [email protected]
  • iHV face-to-face training activity is being suspended due to COVID-19 national guidance. You can contact [email protected]  for more information. We also have some exciting new e-learning packages on Domestic Violence and Abuse and Perinatal Mental Health that we will be launching in the next couple of months – keep an eye on our website and social media for details.
  • On Tuesday 17 March, we decided to postpone our Evidence-based Practice Conference “Creating Healthy Children, 2020 and beyond”, which was scheduled to take place on 12-13 May 2020 in Manchester, in light of public health concerns caused by COVID-19 – read more http://bit.ly/33uApFJ

We will continue with our work and thank you for your continued support – and hope that you all stay healthy and safe.

Infant feeding guidance and pregnancy guidance during COVID-19 outbreak

Many parents are very concerned about how to feed their babies during the COVID-19 outbreak.  Here, we share the latest statement on best practice from Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative – who also suggest that all practitioners follow latest updates from the UK governments and the World Health Organization (WHO) as these could change as more information becomes available.

The Unicef statement (on the link below) includes:

  • Public Health England (PHE) guidance – If you are breastfeeding while infected
  • Accessing infant formula – information from First Steps Nutrition Trust
Go to Unicef website - Infant feeding during the COVID-19 outbreak

Download pdf version of Unicef UK - Infant feeding during the COVID-19 outbreak

 

In addition, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has updated their guidance on Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and pregnancy (published today 18 March) to reflect the announcement on Monday evening (16 March) that pregnant women have been placed in a ‘vulnerable group’. Check the summary of updates on pages 3-5 to see all the changes.

Go to RCOG updated guidance

As a result RCOG Information for pregnant women is updated:

Go to RCOG Information for pregnant women and their families

COVID-19 (coronavirus) guidance

The iHV is closely following the advice and reports of the UK Government – and share some of the latest Government guidance here:

Guidance for healthcare professionals

PHE Guidance Collection - Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance for health professionals and other organisations

PHE Guidance to assist professionals in advising the general public

PHE Guidance - COVID-19: interim guidance for primary care

PHE Guidance - COVID-19 guidance for non-clinical settings

PHE Guidance - COVID-19: guidance for health professionals – collection of materials

Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and pregnancy

Guidance for healthcare professionals on Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in pregnancy, published by the RCOG, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Public Health England and Health Protection Scotland.

Scotland: Health Protection Scotland - Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Wales: Public Health Wales - Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Northern Ireland: Public Health Agency - Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Guidance for the public

NHS - Coronavirus (COVID-19) information for the public

GOV.UK: Latest information and advice (now with video guide on hand washing)