About Cathy Butterworth RN BSc PGCE, Independent Nurse Consultant, SHARP Consultancy - principal author of this site

Cathy Butterworth qualified as a Registered nurse in 1974. She has experience in working in a range of settings, including in the community as a District Nurse.  For more than 20 years her work has involved her in different ways with care homes for older people, including working in homes, supporting staff and inspecting care homes, most recently with CSCI.

Care Planning
In 1998 she led a project with Somerset Health Authority to develop a care planning system for nursing homes – SHARP,  which has been developed into a comprehensive care documentation system for care homes for older people. SHARP has been researched and designed in care homes, for care homes. It has been designed to enable person-centred care to be demonstrated and is continually being updated to reflect current good practice guidelines in the care of older people in care homes.

Courses
The SHARP organisation regularly presents a range of specialist courses to help staff in care homes to keep updated. The courses are designed to be practical and interactive. In the last year SHARP delivered four courses on the Mental Capacity Act & Advance Care Planning. These courses were commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care Institute for Excellence as part of a programme of work on implementing the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Feedback was very positive from all courses.

SHARP has also delivered successful courses on Person-Centred Care Planning, in partnership with Dementia Care Matters.

Consultancy
Cathy works as an Independent Nurse Consultant, supporting care organisations to help them improve their services. Her work with CSCI gives her an understanding of how to achieve high quality care.

Other Recent projects
Cathy became particularly interested in how staff can be supported to increase residents’ involvement in planning their care. This has led to her special interest in advance care planning, which can enable people in care homes to be supported at all times as they would like.  She led on the writing of a good practice guide on Advance Care Planning, sponsored by Counsel and Care and published in June 2008.

Cathy presented at Counsel & Care’s conference ‘The Dignity Challenge for Care Homes’ on 3 April 2008 in London on this subject.

Publications
Ascertaining Wishes: A Good Practice Guide by Cathy Butterworth, Katherine Froggatt and Suzanne Vaughan. The guide includes findings from a research project undertaken by Lancaster University with Counsel and Care, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and care home provider Friends of the Elderly.

You can buy this guide from SHARP Records & Plans - see the box on the right side of this site.