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“You can’t deliver person-centred care without knowing something about the person.”

Whether you are an individual living with a cognitive impairment or care for people at home, in a care home, hospital or hospice, you can use Mycarematters Profiles to improve that experience. 

A person who may not be able to express their needs, or someone on their behalf, creates a short and simple profile of their non-medical needs, preferences, likes and dislikes which can be used by health and social care professionals in any care setting to deliver dignified and person-centred care.
Why create a profile?
Mycarematters provides a way of informing hospital staff and other healthcare professionals about the things you want them to know about you as a person. Information that will help them treat you in a dignified and person-centred manner. It will enable them to see beyond your medical condition, to know more about what matters to you and to avoid mistakes that might happen because you are unable to communicate those things for yourself.

Who is it for?
Mycarematters is of particular value to those with communication challenges, such as those living with dementia, but there may come a time in any of our lives that we are admitted to hospital, for a planned visit or in an emergency and may, temporarily or otherwise, be unable to communicate. Mycarematters provides the opportunity to tell hospital staff that you drink your tea black, that you have a fear of needles and like to wear socks in bed because of your poor circulation.

Can I create a profile for someone else?
Anyone can create a profile for themselves, or if you are a carer for, or relative of, someone who may benefit from a Mycarematters profile you can create a profile on their behalf. If you do not have a Power of Attorney in place you should have a relationship with the person (eg care home manager or close family) where this is an appropriate action for you to take.

How does it work?
Because it is important that your information is kept secure, the first thing we ask you to do is set up an account. All that needs is your name and email address and for you to create a password. 

You have the option of uploading a couple of photos. We recommend that you upload a current picture, and one of your favourites from a past event.

There are then 20 questions to complete in the non-medical needs and preferences section. This is your information, it belongs to you so it is entirely up to you what information you wish to share.

We encourage hospitals to display your profile behind the bed because some of the people who need to know this information: volunteers, housekeeping staff, porters and other non-clinical staff, are unlikely to refer to your filed notes. For this reason you need to keep your answers fairly short so that it all fits on one A4 page.

Key contacts
You have the option of providing two emergency contacts that the hospital can get in touch with if you are admitted. The system provides an easy way for them to send other messages as well, such as when you are leaving hospital to return home.

Further Information
We provide a separate section where you can add further information and upload documents around any thoughts or decisions relating to future care, medications, power of attorney, and more. This is not for displaying behind your bed but is available to all healthcare professionals involved in your care.

How do hospitals know I have a Mycarematters profile?
You will receive an email with a unique code that hospitals need in order to access your profile online, together with your name and date of birth. We provide the option of purchasing items like key fobs and wallet cards that have your unique code printed on them, in our online shop. We currently recommend you take a printout with you in case there is a delay before hospital staff retrieve your profile.

What does it cost?
Creating one profile for yourself or on behalf of someone else is entirely free. You may like to create further profiles for other members of your family in which case you can upgrade to Family Plus for just £15 per annum, and create up to five profiles.

Can I use my Mycarematters profile elsewhere?
Absolutely. We offer a number of ways to display your profile in our Shop.  It’s then available for any paid carers, visiting healthcare professionals or ambulance staff to read at a glance.

Can I update my profile?
You can return to your profile and update or amend it whenever you wish and as often as you like. You will need to log in with the email address and password you used to create your account.

Click on the button to create a profile for yourself or a relative. The information you share will help those delivering care to treat you as a person, not just a patient.
Creating Mycarematters profiles for your residents not only provides a way for all your staff to be made aware of their needs and preferences, but also means that you have a document ready to go with them if they need to undergo a stay in hospital.

It’s quick and simple to do, and we provide a number of ways to display a person’s profile in their room: have a browse in our online Shop.

The information collected is based on the award-winning Remember-I'm-Me Care Charts, another way to display a person's non-medical needs and preferences in their room (using a dry wipe marker pen). 

The online tool has a number of advantages over the original charts:
  • It can be updated by anyone set up and authorised to do so by the account manager (usually the care home manager) including family members.
  • It can be viewed online or printed out by anyone with the person's name, date of birth and Mycarematters code.
  • Further information around medications and advance care planning can be added for each person.
  • Contact details for two key contacts can be added for each person to whom healthcare professionals can send messages.

We are encouraging hospitals to provide a means of displaying a person’s Mycarematters profile behind their bed. As awareness of the benefits of the Mycarematters System grows they will increasingly retrieve your residents’ profiles from online, so when a profile fails to reach the ward or gets lost, they can just print out another. (In due course we anticipate they will view the information via a bedside tablet.)

Create a free profile to see how it works here, and if you would like to create profiles for all your residents, you have the option to subscribe for the number of profiles you need for a small monthly payment.
Want to use Mycarematters Profiles in your hospital or hospice?
If you wish to use the Mycarematters profile in your organisation and make it available to all patients, whether or not they have created an online profile for themselves, we offer blank Mycarematters charts that can be filled in by hand and displayed in the same way.

Please contact us for further details.

Why use Mycarematters Profiles?
It is well understood that knowing about the whole person and not just their medical condition leads to better outcomes: a better experience and shorter stay for the individual, reduced costs and the satisfaction of delivering better care for hospital staff.

If that information was available from the minute a patient was admitted it could help all staff get to know them, to understand what matters to them, be able to meet their needs, reduce the trauma and anxiety often experienced by patients in hospital, and in doing so build trust. A happy patient recovers faster and as we’re all aware it is important that patients return home as quickly as possible, especially for those with a condition like dementia.

The challenge is collecting that information and then ensuring that everyone interacting with the person has access to it.

The award-winning Mycarematters aims to make that information available to you. If a patient already has a Mycarematters profile, in less than a minute you can access and view it on any internet-linked device, or print it out.

We do also encourage people to print out a copy of their Mycarematters Profile and keep it with the paperwork they bring with them to hospital.

The four elements that ensure Mycarematters Profiles really do make a difference are:

  • brevity: staff have very limited time to read ‘non-essential’ information so a Mycarematters profile is printed / written on one single-sided A4
  • immediacy: a patient’s profile can be accessed within minutes of them arriving on the ward, or filled in much more quickly than other, longer documents
  • transferability: whether moving from one ward to another, to another care setting for rehab, or returning home with a care package a patient’s online Mycarematters profile is always available
  • visibility: we suggest hospitals display patients’ profiles behind the bed or at the front of their notes at the foot of the bed.

We’ve set up a fictitious record for you to see for yourself how it works. Go to Retrieve Info and tap in Elizabeth Patient, DoB 20/10/1933 Code 9608919748.

Trials completed in community and acute hospitals have resulted in extremely positive evaluations. Just two of the many comments collected from family members are: “It makes Mum a person again” and “It’s a brilliant idea... I think it’s a really nice insight into my dad” and from staff: “It’s great having the information about a person available at a glance, without having to search through the file.”

Can we sign up online?
We currently ask that Trusts / hospitals and hospices contact us if they'd like to use Mycarematters Profiles so we can discuss your specific needs and circumstances.