Resources for health and social care when working remotely
03 February 2021
Hints and tips - 6 minute read
Sarah Ash - Subject Advisor for health and social care
This blog was originally published on the 3 April 2020
Many of you are probably working from home and supporting students that are working at home too. This blog should help you to find some good resources to support students when studying independently, and resources that you can use to create interesting and challenging lessons for distance learning.
For health and social care, we have several free resources that you might already be familiar with: ExamBuilder, exemplar material, SAMs and examiner and moderator reports. We know these are useful for you from the feedback that we get, so keep on using these to support your students working from home.
There are also lots of great external resources too, and some that you may have forgotten about when trying to work in these unprecedented circumstances. So, I thought you might like a reminder of where you can find some of these.
Where to begin finding sources of information
A good place to begin is with newspapers. Whether online or hard copy newspapers are a great source for news and articles on health and health-related stories.
To get started just type ‘health and social care’ in the search bar of your google browser and click the News tab to see the list of results (other browsers are available).
Which newspapers are the best for health and social care?
These papers employ journalists who specialise in publishing health-related articles, they also have their own dedicated health sections too. You can rely on their articles to provide you with accurate and up-to-date information. If you read them regularly you can also follow a story over time to see how it develops. Some of these might require a subscription to read them online.
What about online resources?
You can’t beat the BBC or Channel 4, their health sections are second to none. They have articles and videos.
You’ve also got www.nhs.uk which has to be the ‘go-to’ website for all thing’s health-related. Their website is definitely going to help with teaching about disorders, symptoms, treatments and job roles, it also has a history of the NHS.
One other resource you might not have heard of is healthtalk.org. As the website says: real people and real experiences. They have a large variety of videos here where people talk about their experiences of living with diseases and disorders.
There’s also an A-Z of illnesses – they even cover spots! And there’s a whole section on young people and how they’ve been affected by a wide variety of conditions.
It’s very informative, and because these accounts are from the people affected by the disorder, you get a true understanding of the impact on them and their families. A really good resources for when you want your students to learn about the ‘impact on health and wellbeing’.
Resources for charities and nutritional support
For any units that cover Mental Health all of the above will have sections on Mental Health, but you can’t beat mind.org.uk. This charity is all things mental health: they have an A-Z of mental health, downloadable leaflets, information, support, campaigns and news, you don’t need to interpret jargon and its website is designed to be accessible and user friendly.
I should also mention charities in general. Most health disorders have a charity that represents them and their websites' host the latest information about the good work being done, as well as resources you can use. Here are some examples to help get you started:
Top tip - just Google the condition you’re interested in researching and often a charity website will come at the top of the search results.
And finally, some of the health and social care units include nutrition. One of the best resources we have found is the British Nutrition Foundation. You’ll find almost everything you want to know about nutrition on this website.
Stay connected
This is only a whistle-stop of resources available to you. Have we missed any resources you think might be useful for teachers and students? Let us know in the comments below.
We're here to support you so if you have any queries or questions, you can email us at vocational.qualifications@ocr.org.uk or Tweet us @OCR_Health. You can also sign up to subject updates and receive information about resources and support.
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