Two care homes dedicated to providing the best possible care for all of their residents right up until the end of their lives, have been recognised with a major national award.
Brunelcare’s Deerhurst and Robinson House care and nursing homes, both based in Bristol, were among just 14 homes from across the UK to achieve the success of winning a Quality Hallmark Award for the first, second or third time from the National Gold Standards Framework (GSF) Centre, the UK’s largest provider of training in end of life care. Staff from the homes received the award from Frank Ursell, CEO of the Registered Nursing Home Association, at a special ceremony in Wolverhampton on 31 March.
Jan Little, Brunelcare’s director of care homes, says: “Brunelcare understands the importance of providing exceptional care for people living with us from the time they move into one of our homes until the time they leave us.
"Our dedicated and compassionate staff understand that decisions cannot be made without being given the appropriate information so the more informed everyone is the more thoughtful and reasoned the decision to be made can be.
"Having an open, responsive and effective dialogue with everyone involved and discussing issues at an earlier stage rather than later makes the decision process easier less rushed and enables the person, the staff and their loved ones to understand and deliver what the person wants at the end of their life.
"In line with the Department of Health strategy Gold Standard for Care Homes, ‘hoping for the best whilst planning for the worst’ enables a more proactive approach and ensures that it is more likely that the right thing happens at the right time.”
GSF Quality Hallmark Awards are presented to homes that demonstrate real improvement in the quality of care they provide. Homes must achieve 20 quality standards, ranging from leadership and support to dignity and respect, as well as submit a portfolio of evidence. Typically, GSF homes halve the number of their residents that die in hospital and halve crisis hospital admissions, leading to greater satisfaction for residents, their families and staff as well as significant cost savings for the NHS.
Frank Ursell says: “Residents and their families want care homes to provide them with compassionate, personalised care, in line with their wishes, right up until the end of their life. The Gold Standards Framework has been instrumental in giving the care home workforce the skills to give people that quality of care they deserve. It’s an honour to be able to present awards to those homes that are leading the way in end of life care.”
Everyone in the home, ranging from nurses to the activities co-ordinator and catering staff, is involved in regular reviews with the residents. All aspects of their lives are considered including spiritual beliefs, personal interests and care preferences.
"Staff talk to the residents about their end of life care, giving them the opportunity to make decisions and say what they want. This has helped the residents and their families feel secure that they will be comfortable and their preferences considered at all times."
Anne Keating, managing director of GSF, says: “Robinson House and Deerhurst Nursing Home demonstrated not only a commitment to care for residents according to their wishes right up until the end of their lives, but also put in place all of the measures required to ensure that they can actually provide that care. Their care home teams should be congratulated for putting Gold quality care at the heart of what they do.”
Almost 3,000 care homes have completed the GSF Care Homes programme since it was launched in 2004 and 600 have gone on to become accredited.
