This blog forms part of my recently commissioned series of videos showcasing the philosophy and daily life at our dementia care home Worcester. In this article and accompanying video, we explore our admissions policy in more detail.
Stanfield is very popular and I think that’s a reflection on years of hard work by the whole team.
We get people arriving on our doorstep, ringing our doorbell, and saying:
“We’ve got a problem. We need to find somewhere for our mother, father, wife, husband,” whoever it may be. “Can we come in and have a look around?”
Our open attitude is as follows…
You can come here at any time of the day.
We may have to ask you to wait a little while to give you the attention you deserve, because our residents come first, but you’re welcome just to knock on the door of our dementia care home Worcester.
From that, we sit down and try and find out with those people that have arrived on our doorstep what they’re actually trying to achieve for their loved one and whether Stanfield may actually be a suitable place to get that.
Helping People To Navigate Whether Our Dementia Care Home Worcester Is Right For Their Loved One Is A Key Part Of Our Ethos
That takes a whole series of discussions. We show people around the home. We have permission from some families to go into rooms so that we can show them what our physical accommodation is like.
We go to a great deal of length to try and find out what they want at this time, because often people are extremely distressed.
These things don’t happen usually on a planned basis.
It’s very rare for an admission to be planned well in advance. Admissions often tend to happen in crisis.
Somebody has been in the acute sector and the family are told this person can no long go home, and they have a very limited amount of time to find somewhere for their loved one to stay and be cared for.
What we try and do is give lots of notice about what we’re capable of and we use a variety of methods.
We use the web. We use local advertising. We have a very full brochure that people can pick up which will inform them about us.
More importantly, what we say to somebody is:
“Come in. Have a look. Don’t be afraid to go away and come back and have a look.”
If we’re invited to, we will go and meet the person and undertake a complete assessment and we will discuss that assessment in a very open and caring way with the person we’re asked to care for and those supporting them, and try and arrive at the very best solution.
Not everybody is suitable for Stanfield.
Yes, it’s nice to have a high level of occupancy, but the responsibility to be able to say to a family member, “I don’t think that this place is right for your loved one” is ever present in my mind.
We have to bear in mind that we have a family here of approximately 39 residents.
If we bring somebody new into this building, they’re joining our family. Their family are joining our family and it’s got to be right.
Yours,
Richard White
Director
If you’d like to learn more about our dementia care home Worcester, whether for yourself or a loved one, please call us on 01905 420 459. Alternatively, you are very welcome to arrange to come and have a look around our home and grounds.
You may also like to read our previous blog – care home Worcester testimonial – and watch the accompanying review which was kindly provided to us by Don, the husband of one of our residents.