The National Association for End of Life care
Promoting excellence in care for people nearing the end of life.
Omega, the National Association for End of Life Care, is a newly formed charity, aiming to promote excellence in care for people nearing the end of their lives. It developed from and is closely aligned with the work of the National GSF Centre (see below) , but has a larger remit in end of life care, covering four areas of work:- development of an Academy for the training and education of generalists in end of life care , particularly focusing on care homes staff , research and evaluation of effective solutions, developing improvements and international work in improving end of life care abroad.
It comes at a crucial stage in the development of End of Life Care in this country, as the Department of Health in England launches its first End of Life Care Strategy this summer, and the NHS Next Stage review led by Lord Darzi presents the findings of groups from around the country on the way forward for improving End of Life care .
Plans for our first year in pursuit of these aims include:
- The development of an Omega Academy, providing education and training to generalists in end of life care, quality programmes and Quality Assurance services.
- New initiatives to improve care for people nearing the end of their lives, including the development of Spirituality and Resilience toolkits, and
- The creation of a Research Fund focused on Quality Improvement.
Omega focuses more on strategic development and commissioning of work required to further this important area of life , developing the vision for improving care for all people nearing the end of life across all sectors The work of the GSF Centre, however, is more linked to operational delivery, to enable best delivery and implementation of GSF.
This Omega website will be developed over the coming months as the charity begins its work.
For more details contact:
Omega The National Association for End of Life Care
London House
Town Walls
Shrewsbury
SY1 1TX
Tel 01743 344017
Email info@omega.net.uk
Registered company No. 6196052 April 07 Registered Charity No. 1120322 July 07
Omega works in partnership with the Gold Standard Frameworks (GSF)
The National GSF Centre is based within the NHS in Walsall tPCT and has three main programmes of work, focusing more on the operational delivery of practical support and enablement to health and social care professionals to deliver best care. It aims to promote a gold standard of care for all people nearing the end of their lives and to ensure that people live well until they die. There are three areas of work:-
- Primary Care
- Care Homes
- Other End of Life Care initiatives
The GSF in Primary Care Programme was developed in 2001 from clinical experience in primary care, as a grass roots initiative to improve palliative care delivered by primary care teams and collaboration with palliative care specialists. It is now being used by the majority of GP practices across the UK, has become mainstreamed into NHS practice, has been well evaluated and is nationally and internationally recognized as best practice in improving primary palliative care for people at home in the final months/ years of life.
Since 2004, the framework was adapted for use in care homes and a separate GSF in Care Programme developed and was tested out through grass roots care homes experience of over 600 homes .It involves preparatory work, training workshops and then a period of consolidation followed by an accreditation process ‘Going for Gold’ .
Thirdly, the GSF Team have developed other improvements in End of Life Care such as the Prognostic Indicator Guidance, the After Death Analysis, GSF for children, an in-reach to hospitals project etc.
The GSF Team is led by the National Clinical Lead ,Dr Keri Thomas, who is also Chair of Omega, and supported by a team of clinicians and managerial staff .
Full information can be found on its website www.goldstandardsframework.nhs.uk , via judy.simkins@walsall.nhs.uk or via the Helpline on 01902 604666 .