12.5.2024 PCS
Help to bring residents and families closer together
It can be a very emotional, difficult and stressful situation when someone moves into a care home; often it is one of the most pivotal times in a person’s life and their family want to ensure not only that they are selecting the right environment for their loved one but that there are also plenty of opportunities to stay in touch, maintain their relationship, and avoid their loved one feeling isolated or forgotten. This is why it’s so important to think about meaningful ways to stay in touch with loved ones in care homes.
As someone working in a care setting, it’s more important now than ever to ensure that people living in care homes have every opportunity to stay connected to their families, friends and other loved ones to ensure better overall resident experience. Not only is it paramount for their overall wellbeing, but more and more regulations around visitors are becoming increasingly important with regulatory bodies. So, ensuring that people in your care setting have as much access as possible to visitors will now more than ever help towards ensuring better regulatory outcomes.
Specifically, according to the CQC, Regulation 9A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 aims to make sure:
- People staying in a care home, hospital or hospice can receive visits from people they want to see
- People living in a care home are not discouraged from taking visits outside the home
- People attending appointments in a hospital or hospice, that do not require an overnight stay, can be accompanied by a family member, friend or advocate if they want someone with them.
The CQC goes on to say: “The regulation explains what providers must do to make sure they respect the right of each person to receive visits and to be accompanied, following an assessment of their needs and preferences.
“Everyone should work on the assumption that in-person visiting and accompaniment to appointments are possible. Providers must put in place any measures or precautions necessary and proportionate to ensure that visiting and accompaniment can continue to happen safely.”
Crucially, they also say: “These must be the least restrictive options and must be decided with the person using the service, and their family, friends or advocates where appropriate.”
As a care provider, it’s important that you act as a connection, supportively and proactively, between residents and their loved ones, always making sure that you do what you can to facilitate staying in touch. Especially early on, families will need your support to help make the transition for their loved one as smooth and trouble-free as possible, which means being open in terms of communication. You might even try suggesting to loved ones some meaningful ways they can stay in touch with their loved ones, and you can do your bit to help make it happen.
So, here are some of our top choices for meaningful activities to stay in touch with loved ones in care homes.
Regular virtual catchups
While nothing can truly replace the benefits of in-person visits with loved ones in care homes, whether it’s because of work, travel difficulties or any other type of hurdle to overcome, life can sometimes mean that people don’t get to visit their relatives in care homes as often as they would like to.
The next best thing is having regular virtual catchups, which can still be a very powerful and comforting way of keeping in regular contact with loved ones in care homes. It can bridge the physical gap between families and loved ones and still offer many of the same benefits as in-person visits whilst also being easier to organise on a more regular basis. Ideally, family members would mix both – scheduling regular visits to the home when they can, and supplementing this with virtual visits.
Virtual catchups also offer a more meaningful experience than, for example, a phone call, because for someone living in a care setting, it is more comforting and reassuring to see a familiar face regularly and will enhance the level of closeness between family and residents.
Celebrate special occasions
One of the best ways to maintain a meaningful connection and stay in touch with loved ones in care homes is to celebrate special occasions, like birthdays for example. This can be hugely beneficial because it will demonstrate to the person living in care that they are still a big part of the lives of their family members, and being in a care home setting means it can bring everyone together as a community.
In this instance, it’s a good idea for you as a care provider to connect with the family of the person you’re caring for and find out the information you need to make any celebration truly personalised and special. For example, what type of music they like, what kind of food they like, whether there is a special place to take them to celebrate and things of this nature. You should also work closely with the family to organise this. Finding out about likes and personal touches to make an occasion really meaningful is where digital care planning solutions can really help, because with Person Centred Software’s mCare, you can use features such as Who I Am, which can give you invaluable insights into the people for whom you care when it comes to their preferences and life stories.
Get involved in care home activities
This is another meaningful way for families to stay in touch and get involved with the everyday lives of their loved ones. This could include involving family members on days out to the favourite places of their loved ones or getting involved with activities that are taking place in the care home like theme or festive days, quizzes, movie nights or art projects. These types of activities and so many more like them are available on the Oomph! On-Demand Wellbeing & Activities Platform, wherein residents and staff can enjoy over 3,000 different activities.
Either way, encouraging families to get involved where possible in the regular activities of the care home will help to strengthen the bond with their loved ones and help to keep them involved in the new phase of the person’s life.
Harness technology through digital solutions
Ensuring that families have the chance to stay in touch with loved ones is key to the overall experience of people living in care settings, and you can ensure this happens by investing in the very best digital solutions, for example a resident experience platform such as ResHub, which is designed to bring residents and families closer together.
Part of the Connected Care Platform, ResHub offers a selection of modules that can be customised to fit each residents’ needs. Specifically, modules such as Engagement and Communication Management and Lifestyle Calendar ensure that families of those living in care settings are always kept up to date with their loved one's activities and allows families to stay connected to their loved ones.
