'Nearly half of all nursing and care homes fail to meet national minimum standards for how they give people medication prescribed by their doctors to treat serious and other illnesses' (Commission for Social Care Inspection, April 2006). Administering medication is one of the most important tasks to be undertaken by care staff, and yet a lack of awareness, knowledge and skills is potentially disastrous.

This 1-day course is based on the training guidelines reccommended by CSCI and published by Skills for Care and is aimed at non-clinically trained housing and project workers who need to be familiar with the main classes of medication used, why and how they may be used, and the various side-effects that may be encountered by clients. The relevant legislation and guidelines are covered along with issues such as self-medication, liaising with health care professionals and deciding when to omit medication.