Enter and View: Park House care home

The purpose of this Enter and View programme was to engage with residents, and their relatives or carers, to explore their overall experience of living in Park House care home. As well as building a picture of their general experience, we asked about experiences in relation to social isolation and physical activity.

Summary

Park House is an older ‘Country Manor’ style building, registered to provide personal and nursing care for up to 35 residents. The home caters for general residential, dementia and other healthcare needs and manages the nursing care provision for those residents who require it. 

At the time of our visit, we were advised that 70% of the residents required dementia care.

What we found

Residents said they feel they can be themselves and speak out about any preferences, whether that be on food, activities, or choice of film. We were told that any niggles or complaints are dealt with effectively by care staff or the management team.

The food looked and smelt fresh; it was well presented with good portion sizes. 

Residents are free to come and go as they please. During our visit we observed a couple of residents going out with family members. Residents have some choice in when to have a bath and/ or shower and staff seem willing to plan ahead to accommodate residents wishes around this.

What people told us:

” I like living here, I feel safe.” 
“It’s called a ‘home’, and it really is my home.”
"Staff are excellent, 100%.” 
“Staff don’t just look after the residents but the families too."
"Staff always ask permission to come in. They are great."

Our recommendations include:

On the basis of this visit, we found Park House to be a well-run home where residents are able to maintain a good level of autonomy over their lives. Our recommendations are intended to strengthen and support the already good and caring environment. They include: 

• Explore options for more varied activities that could be inclusive of those less mobile residents or look at designing an activity program specifically for bedbound residents, particularly those who also have sight and hearing impairments.
• Consider accessing Deaf Awareness training for staff to improve the experience of d/Deaf residents in the home. Similar communications training would be useful for those residents who are non-verbal.

Examples of best practice

The new activity co-ordinator is creating individual profiles for residents on the dementia wing to enable ALL care staff to provide quality one to one time with each of the residents.