This blog forms part of my recently commissioned series of videos showcasing the philosophy and daily life at our Worcestershire dementia care home, Stanfield Nursing Home. In this article and accompanying video, I discuss our health & safety policy.
I’ve touched on Stanfield being somebody’s home, and that really does translate into practical situations.
My view is that as long as we’re compliant with the law at our care home Worcester, i.e. electrical items, somebody can bring whatever they want into the home.
So often families will ask me, can I bring a chair in?
My only question is, is it suitable for the fire x point of view?
Can I bring a sideboard in? Can I bring this in? Can I bring that in?
You can bring whatever you want in, as long as I can risk assess it.
The only thing I actually need, is a specialist bed.
I have to have a specialist bed for the type of care that we’re going to provide.
And also, my staff are delivering care often in and around a bed, and I have to be able to protect them from injury.
What personal items do we accept into our Worcestershire dementia care home?
We have all sorts of things in our home.
At the moment, we’ve got at least five rooms which have been completely gutted apart from our bed, and personal items have been brought in.
That works well for those family members. We have other people who say no. That was my life then and I don’t want it anymore. And we have to respect that.
What I do ask is that families bring in photographs, and prized personal possessions.
With photographs, we get them to put little labels on the back, so it says John and Mary, so and so’s son.
So that when we’re talking about the photograph with the resident, we know who we’re talking about, and it’s not a superficial exercise.
For a lot of people, it might sound silly, but comfort toys are very, very important.
Something soft. We think of this as a childish behavior, but believe you me, it’s not.
It applies to all of us, of all ages. Because sometimes it’s just nice to hold something, whether it be somebody’s hand or whether it be a favourite toy.
If you’d like to learn more about our Worcestershire dementia care home, 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.
Yours,
Richard White
Director
You might also like to watch our previous video and read the accompanying blog which was kindly provided to us by Sarah in her Worcester care home review.
You can view this and all of the videos in this series on our YouTube Channel.