Choosing a care home for your loved ones can be challenging. There are many factors to consider to ensure that your loved ones are safe and comfortable in their new home.
At Crouched Friars, we believe that a care home should feel like a second home for all our residents. So, we have put together a guide you can use to choose the best care home for your loved ones.
There are questions here that you can ask when visiting our care home to make sure you’re making the right choice for your family.
Quality of care
The first and most important thing is to consider when choosing a care home is the quality of care that the home provides. Quality of care can be measured in various ways, like, by looking at the home’s CQC rating, going through its website, reading reviews on directories like carehome.co.uk and checking out Google reviews.
On your first visit to the care home, you can ask questions like:
- How do you provide personalised care for residents?
- What kind of training do the staff receive? How regularly do they receive it?
- What do you do to make residents feel at home?
- How do you decide the food menu? Are dietary and cultural requirements catered for? Is the food prepared on the premises?
- Does the care home have access to services such as a GP, dentist, hairdresser, etc?
- How do you support family members?
Facilities
Another thing to consider is what kind of facilities residents have access to in a care home. After all, your loved ones will be spending a lot of time there. You can find out if the facilities are compatible with your loved one’s’ requirements before you make your decision.
To ensure you have covered all bases, you can ask questions like:
- Are the bedrooms fully furnished? Can they be modified for those with a disability? Can residents bring their own bits and pieces to personalise their rooms?
- Do you have a good variety of communal areas? Are there any outdoors?
- What kind of safety measures do you have in place at the care home?
- Is the care home designed to support people with disabilities? Are there enough handrails and lifts for residents to navigate through the home? Are there accessible toilets in common areas?
Daily life
It is a good idea to get to know how a care home functions day-to-day so that you know your loved ones will enjoy their time there. You can enquire about what the residents get up to and what sort of routines they follow at the home by asking questions like:
- Do all residents follow the same routine or can they choose their own?
- What kind of entertainment do residents have access to? Are TVs, access to Wi-Fi, books, and games available for residents to use?
- Can residents go out on their own whenever they please if it safe for them to do so?
- Do the staff engage with the residents and attend to their daily needs?
- Can family and friends visit often? What is the process to get a visitation appointment?
- Is the care home involved with the local community? How is the community involved in the home’s day-to-day activities?
Activities
Care home activities form a big part of residents’ daily lives. When a care home goes the extra mile to make activities fun and exciting for residents, it has a really positive impact on their time at the home. To find out if the care home you’re looking at has a good activities plan, you can ask questions like:
- What kind of activities do you conduct at the care home? Are they disability-friendly?
- Do you involve planning of the activities?
- Do these activities take place indoors or outdoors? Are they individual or group activities or a mix of both?
- How often do you involve families in the caremhome’s activities?
- Do you encourage residents to pursue their own hobbies and interests?
Cost
Budget is one of the most common considerations when choosing a care home for your loved one. It is important to consider costs and contracts before you finalise a care home. You can find out more about this by asking questions like:
- What are the care home’s fees? Do we pay them monthly or annually? Do we pay them in advance or arrears?
- What’s included in the fees? Are there any extra fees or add ons?
- What kind of contract do you have? Are the residents made aware of the terms and conditions beforehand?
- How often do fees increase? How much notice will we be given when they increase?
We hope this guide helps you make the right choice for your family. You can find more questions on carehome.co.uk‘s website: https://www.carehome.co.uk/assets/files/checklist.pdf.
If you are looking for a care home for a loved one and would like to know more about Crouched Friars, please feel free to call us at 01206 572647 and a member of staff will be happy to talk to you.