What To Expect From A Good Care Home

Care homes provide an essential service. They help those in need get the essential care that they need. There are many different care homes that provide specific services, and there will be more general care homes that cater for everyone. Within these care homes, there are a lot of different elements.

Care homes need to be carefully monitored and regulated by specific organisations to ensure that the standards of care are high. If the standards are lacking, then it’s likely that the care home will be forced to close. If you are looking into care homes for yourself or a family member, this article will be for you. You can find out what to expect from a good care home, and what the standard should be. Let’s get started.

High-Quality Service And Effective Communication

A sign that a care home is of high quality is how they communicate. A care home should have effective communication within the home and with any family members. Communication in health and social care is key, and will help ensure everything is running smoothly. For example, effective communication skills can help care workers when they are providing care to patients.

Effective communication can also help de-escalate tense situations. This will be the case for patients as well as any potential family members. You should know that communication comes in a few different forms. For example, communication can be verbal, written, non-verbal and formal. Care homes should provide communication training and have a system in place to deal with potential complaints.

As well as providing effective communication across the care home, a care home must provide high-quality service. This refers to the quality of care that is being administrated and the general day-to-day running of the home. It’s not just the care service itself, it will also refer to the admin side of things.

Not only should the care home be open and communicative, but it should also be able to easily manage people coming in and out, and have everything sorted. Across the board, the service standards should be high. Employees should be regularly trained to improve standards and provide the expected care level.

Accessibility

Every care home across the UK will need to ensure they are providing as much accessibility as possible. This will be for those who need care, as well as those who are coming to visit. In terms of the building, there should be ramps, as well as stairs, to help get to the front door of the building.

On the topic of stairs, your internal stairs need to have stair lifts so that those needing care can get up and down easily. You should also ensure you have accessibility equipment, such as wheelchairs, in abundance. You shouldn’t only have what you need for everyone, you should have spares and back-ups, just in case.

There are also a range of accessibility needs that should be considered for the bathrooms throughout the care home. An accessible care home will have washing facilities that provide assistance for those with mobility issues or prolonged weakness. If a care home is not providing the basic necessities, then it will be ineffective.

Accessible care homes will need to use shower chairs to provide support in baths for those in the home. Care home managers should source the highest quality shower chairs that are around. They can be sourced from places such as the NHC Group. Care home managers can browse a wide range of shower chairs through sites such as this and should ensure they are updating all of their furniture and fittings often. This will be a sign that a care home is effective and working well.

Modernisation

A sign that a care home is working well, and is putting quality first, will be a care home that is looking to always modernise the facilities. That’s not to say that the care home needs to be going through heavy renovations every month, just that it should always consider what could improve the facilities.

The modernisation of a care home facility can involve a few different elements. For the most part, it will come down to the equipment that is used. It is likely that there will be modern care providing innovative equipment that comes to the market annually. Effective and good care home leaders must ensure they are aware of what is coming to the care home market at all times.

If care homes aren’t looking to modernise their equipment, then they could become outdated quite quickly. It’s not just the equipment that will need to be modernised, an effective and working care home will need to ensure it is using modern care techniques. This means that care homes will need to be training their employees in modern techniques, and they will need to ensure they are prepared to change what they are doing.

Cleanliness

It may sound obvious, but it is worth talking about all the same. A good care home will be a care home that is clean. Clean care homes aren’t just something that is useful, it is a legal requirement. There are specific regulations that care home leaders will need to be aware of. For example, there are infection prevention and control in care home regulations. A care home will need to have a specific plan in place when it comes to cleaning.

Care homes need to make it clean for those who are staying in the home and those who are visiting. Standards should be high. It may be the care providers themselves that help with cleaning, or there may be dedicated cleaning staff that come in and provide cleaning as their primary job. Cleaning can also be outsourced to ensure it is getting done.

Either way, care homes must provide clean facilities. If they are not providing clean facilities, then a number of potential issues could crop up. For example, the health of those who are staying in the care home could be impacted, and they could be put into a very dangerous position.

If there are poor standards of cleaning, then it is likely that the care home facilities will eventually be forced to close. They may not even get a chance to make amends in the short-term if it is quite bad. There are regulators who will come to inspect the facilities often, so that they can ensure everything is up to code. A good care home will be a care home that focuses on its cleanliness and always tries to improve standards.

Conclusion

By now, you should have more of an idea of what to expect from a care home. These are some of the signs to be aware of whether you are looking to go into care or know someone who is. Care home managers should also ensure they are aware of these signs and have put steps in place to address concerns, if there are any.

Care homes should have accessibility and cleanliness as a priority, and should be looking to modernise wherever possible. Lastly, care homes will need to provide a high-quality service overall, and staff will need to ensure that they are being effective with their communication. That will be a sign that a care home is good.