A bad care home for older people

Read our story about a care home for older people that needs to improve.

A CSCI inspector found, on an unannounced visit to a care home on the south coast, that the level of hygiene left much to be desired. Residents seemed quite listless and unmotivated.

Jim Towers has been inspecting care homes for many years, and so has become quite used to seeing varying standards of care.

But he was quite surprised, when visiting this care home, to find that that the place smelt of stale urine.

There was dust on the furniture and the windows on to the garden were smeared with grime.

He also was quite saddened to see that the residents were slumped in front of the television, in the lounge, in the middle of the day.

“It wasn’t as if any of them were even watching it,” he said.

“They had it on at full volume, probably for those with hearing difficulties.

“So whatever daytime programme they were watching was boring them enough to be of little interest.

“But it was loud enough to prevent any other form of communication.

“This meant that each resident was just slumped in their own armchair and in their own world, when they could have been having a good chat, or a game of cards or something.

“I asked for the remote control to the television, to turn it down. But none of them knew where it was.”

On talking to the manager, Jim realised that this wasn’t just a one off. It was what happened on most days.

The garden was out of bounds

Despite the fact that the home’s brochure boasted about the health giving properties of the sea air in the locality, residents were rarely taken out for a walk along the prom.

On top of that, the garden was out of the bounds because staff could not be spared for supervising outdoors.

Occasionally, usually at Christmas, a local choir came in to give a choral performance, but such entertainment were rare.

Jim talked to the manager of the care home: “I said, ‘Do you ever ask the residents what they’d like to do?’

“He seemed quite surprised at such an idea. ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘They’re just like children. They like to be told what to do.’

“I replied, ‘In that case, why do they look so bored and unhappy?’

“Then I explained to him about how people like to be involved with their home, wherever it is, just as they would in a family.

“I told him that old people are no different to any others, regardless of their age.

"They like to be stimulated, they want to feel empowered and involved in how their lives are run, and they need to have a sense of purpose.”

He also talked to the manager about the hygiene issues, and the manager agreed that the standards needed to be raised considerably.

Jim is now working with the home to help the manager to improve the lives of the residents.

The home is now much cleaner, and the residents have monthly meetings where one of the matters under discussion is the sort of activities they would like to introduce into their daily lives.