Person-centred care for older people in care homes
This resource covers the implications of delivering person-centred care for older people in residential care and nursing homes. It summarises information, advice and guidance to support care home owners and managers in developing a person-centred (or personalised) approach to care in their homes.
Introduction to personalisation
Personalisation means putting the person who is using your service at the centre of everything you do in the care home.
Introduction - Law, policy and guidance - Regulation
Personalisation for owners and managers
-
Leadership
Strong leadership is critical to developing a culture inside the home which supports personalisation.
-
Person-centred
Owners and managers need to ensure that all staff are fully committed to personalisation. Ask the residents whether you are getting it right.
-
The individual
In a care home, ‘quality’ is about ensuring that the individual’s hopes, goals and needs are met.
-
Families and carers
Encourage families to be active partners in the care you offer to residents.
-
Better services
Owners and managers should support the development of new local services which respond to the demands of the people in their care homes.
-
Local partners
Managers and staff need to work jointly with health and social care partners, as well as third sector and community organisations, in transforming local care.
-
Good health in the care home
Most care home residents are in their 80s or older, and many need care and support for a range of conditions.
-
Care home ‘is’ a community
Your aim is to make the home ‘home-like’: it should look, sound and smell as much as possible like an ordinary home anyone might live in.
-
Care home ‘in’ the community
The life of the home should not stop at the front door: it should become part of the local community.
-
Information for care homes
At every stage, people in your home will need information to choose between and take up the opportunities available to them.
-
Safety and safeguarding
People in care homes are entitled to live without fear of harm, abuse or neglect. They should be supported to manage any risk arising from the independence they seek.
-
End of life care in a care home
About a fifth of all people who die in any one year in England die in a care home. This means that training for all staff in end of life care planning, and for some in palliative care is a priority.
