Showing posts tagged with: care professionals

Is there a future for luxury care homes?

The not-for-profit group Anchor, best known for its sheltered housing, is opening a luxury care home. The charity believes it marks the start of a new model of care for the baby boomer generation. But with doubts remaining about the future prospects for sector will the approach take off?

Set in five acres of Surrey greenbelt, West Hall is not the average care home.

The £30m development has 117 en-suite rooms, a hair salon, a library, landscaped gardens and a private dining room for special occasions.

The accommodation is housed in three separate purpose-built buildings, known as "clusters", while many of the communal facilities are situated in a listed manor house.

The rooms are all equipped with sensors which alert staff if someone has fallen or stopped moving and each area in the clusters is coloured differently to help those with advanced dementia recognise their living areas.

But what also marks the centre out is the level of training everyone has. There is a 12-week induction that covers dementia care which all staff, from the care professionals to the handyman, complete.

View the original article here.

Carers of young and old 'are struggling to cope'

The pressure of looking after children while caring for elderly relatives is taking its toll on all aspects of family life, a Carers UK survey suggests.

It found that a third of "sandwich carers" had to give up work, while two-thirds said their marriages had been damaged.

The charity is calling for care services and employers to support the 2.4 million families in this situation.

Three-quarters of those surveyed said they had suffered a loss of earnings, and 95% said the pressure of caring had affected their ability to work.

When asked about family finances, 52% said the cost of caring for elderly relatives was having an impact while 50% reported they were struggling with childcare costs.

The responsibilities of caring for young and old can be detrimental to family life too, the survey suggests, with two-thirds of sandwich carers reporting damage to their marriages or personal relationships.

View the original article here.

17 hospitals with unsafe staffing says Care Quality Commission

Seventeen NHS hospitals are among 26 healthcare providers in England failing to operate with safe staffing levels, the Care Quality Commission has said.

The health watchdog issued the hospitals with warnings in November, after carrying out inspections.

About 16% of hospitals failed to come up to the necessary levels.

To read more click here.

Routes are at the British Care Show, Salford City Stadium

Today I completed the Induction training for our fantastic new Healthcare Assistants and Carers working for our Preston branch.

A lovely group with a wealth of knowledge and experience – I think they will fit right in at Routes!  

I have a busy week ahead training – however looking forward to attending the British Care Show on Wednesday at Salford City Stadium.

Looks like there will be some great Light Bulb sessions covering Training, Promoting best dignity and lots more – Maybe see you there?

If not I will update you on Friday with how it all goes – Here’s the website to find out more.

http://www.gbcareshows.co.uk/

Dementia Training

It’s been an exciting week at Routes - The Great British Care Show last week was an empowering experience and it was lovely to see so many people passionate about the work they do.

The Alzheimer’s Society delivered an informative session about improving dementia care in a challenging health and social care sector. It got me thinking about what more we can do to help equip our staff with the knowledge and skills for working with clients with dementia.....

We are now, with the help and support of Kim from the fantastic St Ann’s Hospice, delivering Dementia Training throughout our branches to give our staff the knowledge needed to help to provide the best care possible for people with dementia. We are very lucky to have the support of such an inspiring organisation!