16 Dec Case study: Providing online training for family carers

Title: Case study: Providing online training for family carers
Client: Family Carers Ireland
Projects:

• Supporting Good Nutrition and Hydration for Family Carers eLearning course
• Continence Care for Family Carers eLearning course
• Positive Communication for Families eLearning course
• Family Caring and Coping with Grief eLearning course
• The Family Carers Emergency Scheme animation
• The Family Carers Caring Employer Scheme animation

About Family Carers Ireland

Family Carers Ireland is a charity that supports family carers, responsible for caring for their family members who may be frail, terminally ill, have physical or intellectual disabilities or are suffering from chronic illness or addiction. The vision of Family Carers Ireland is to properly recognise, support and empower family carers. They believe that no one should have to care alone.

Business Challenge

The COVID-19 crisis meant that Family Carers Ireland were no longer able to facilitate face-to-face training, usually delivered to family carers. As a result, Family Carers Ireland wanted to embrace new technology and develop a series of online learning resources to enable them to continue supporting family carers located all over the country. The resources needed to be of a high quality, be very practical and relevant for the family carer in Ireland for years to come. Family Carers Ireland also wanted to make the most of their access to highly regarded subject matter experts, who were able provide their time and expertise to the project.

Our Solution

Family Carers Ireland partnered with The Learning Rooms to help them to develop six solutions, made up of mobile first eLearning courses and animated videos. The first part of the solution was four 30-minute eLearning courses aimed at supporting family carers with specific aspects of the caring role, including nutrition, continence care, communication and coping with grief.

Supporting Good Nutrition and Hydration for Family Carers covers the importance of good nutrition, how to support dietary and nutritional needs of another person, and other considerations that might be important to a family carer, such as exercise, swallowing and oral care.

In Continence Care, participants are introduced to incontinence and the impact it might have on a person. The course provides practical information on how to support a person who is incontinent.

Positive Communication for Families covers the basics of communication, active listening skills and the impact of emotional communication. This course supports participants to be able to point out the positives and explore their own communication boundaries.

In Family Caring and Coping with Grief, participants are introduced to the grieving process and the losses associated with being a family carer. The course provides practical information on how to support a family carer who is grieving. This course was developed in conjunction with the Irish Hospice Foundation.

The modern, interactive courses contain documentary style videos, case studies and audio content, making them an engaging learning experiences for participants. The courses have been designed to be accessible on all types of device. In line with what Family Carers Ireland was looking for, the high quality courses provide participants with practical ways of supporting the person they care for.

The second part of the solution was two explainer videos: one about the Family Carers Emergency Scheme and the other about the Family Carers Caring Employer Scheme. The creative and engaging animated videos explain what the schemes are and how they work in clear and easy to understand way.

“Coming to the e-learning arena without prior experience was a little daunting, but The Learning Rooms supported us through each step of the process, from concept to final material. We are delighted with the resources we now have for family carers to access in their own time”.
Anna de Siún,
National Lead for Psychosocial Supports

Key project outputs:

• Articulate Rise 360
• Explainer videos
• Video and audio learning
• Case studies
• Interactive and engaging content
• Rapid turnaround eLearning.