fbpx

One Thing You Should Always Look for When Choosing a Care Home

If you had to choose a care home, what would you look for? You might look at the quality of the accommodation, staff training, food or maybe even the CQC inspection report.

If your biggest concerns were maintaining emotional and physical wellbeing, good mental health and being less at risk of developing dementia you’d probably want to take a very close look at the activity programme.

There’s a growing body of evidence that staying physically and mentally active is vitally important in later life. The benefits of a full activity programme include better mobility, self-esteem, confidence, independence and companionship.

New research reported by Psychology Today suggests that maintaining high levels of social interaction may also make people more resilient when it comes to the risks of cognitive decline and developing dementia.

At the most basic level activities make life more fun. They are a way to make friends, learn new skills, see new places and interact with other people.

Activity programmes in care homes are not just a way of filling time and preventing residents from getting bored. They are also part of the care people receive because they make such a meaningful contribution to maintaining levels of health and wellbeing.

Our care homes have activity coordinators who carefully plan programmes that include art classes, live music, exercise, dance, gardening and crafts. There are also regular organised trips to nearby locations and events. We aim to provide something for everyone, whatever their level of ability, and many activities are organised in response to residents’ suggestions.

For many residents, being in care makes it easier to access activities so they can enjoy more social interaction, stimulation and enjoyment in their later years.

There are many factors to weigh up when choosing a care home, we’d suggest that the variety of activities on offer should be fairly near the top of the list. You can contact us here to find out more information.

How Will You Use the CQC Ratings When You Search for a Care Home?

Choosing a care home or a home care provider is a big decision. Anything that helps people make a better choice for themselves or for an elderly relative should be welcomed.

In theory, the ratings issued following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) ought to be a useful, or even definitive, guide. In our experience, people do pay a lot of attention to ratings, particularly if poor ratings are picked up by the local press. A CQC judgement of inadequate can effectively put a care provider out of business.

But how well do most people understand where the ratings come from, what they mean or how reliable they are? It can be quite complicated as we explained in a recent article about what CQC ratings for care providers mean.

A central problem is that the CQC has developed into a large, cumbersome organisation. The complexity of the inspection regime, with over 600 regulations and CQC expecting 100% compliance for each is getting close to micromanagement. But this is hard to sustain in an organisation that struggles to recruit enough qualified inspectors and only visits most providers every couple of years.

How Accurate Are CQC Ratings?

CQC ratings and reports reflect a snapshot of how an inspection team interpreted what they saw on a specific day. Is this a realistic and accurate picture of what happens on a normal day when inspectors aren’t around? Are some providers simply better at preparing for inspections than others?

Some high-profile cases of neglect and abuse have, in fact, happened at homes that had been rated ‘good’. Similarly, you could probably find many perfectly contented residents in the more than one-in-eight care homes that have never had an overall rating of good. And several homes that are rated as inadequate had previously been rated as good.

So, does all of this mean that CQC ratings have no value? Not necessarily. They are still the result of an independent person who has followed an inspection process. Overall, they will tend to identify homes that are better run and where residents are better cared for.

There’s a strong argument that there are other important considerations for people choosing a care home. The best advice is to see the home for yourself during a normal day. Talk to the staff, try to get a sense of the atmosphere and ask yourself whether it’s somewhere that you or your family member would be happy to live.

Visitors are always welcome at all of our care homes. If you’d like to see for yourself how we work, you can contact us here to arrange a visit and find out more information.

Some recent day to day activities