Care Homes Archives - Abbeyfield Bognor

Qualities of A Good Care Home

A care home should be warm and welcoming, have comfortable beds and furniture, plenty of TV’s and games, laundry facilities and bathrooms that are not very far from where the residents live. This helps reduce the distance between you and your resident, and also makes it easier for you to keep track of them throughout the day. The staff should be friendly and kind to all of their patients, and they should be attentive to their surroundings. If you are planning on choosing a care home, check out the local agencies to see what accreditation they have and whether their services meet your requirements.

If you are looking at placing elderly people in assisted living homes, you need to find one that has been recommended by your doctor, a home care agency or a reputable, licensed nursing home. Many people are wary of visiting nursing homes, for fear that they are not as safe as a skilled nursing facility. However, nursing homes are no more dangerous than any other kind of home for the elderly. In fact, they can be a lot more beneficial to seniors because they provide a soothing environment and the necessary social interaction that may have been missing since the senior has lived alone. Also, seniors often find it easier to interact with other residents if they are surrounded by familiar faces.

Ask about the services provided at the home and whether or not the staff follows up with the residents’ needs. Some care homes do an excellent job of taking care of their residents’ needs. Find out what kind of medical health insurance the care home provides. Before you make your final selection, find out what kinds of health insurance are covered. Some health issues become much more expensive when medications are needed, so you want to be sure that you don’t end up footing the bill for extra health care costs.

care homes

Garage Conversions Glasgow Residents Are Choosing

by Abbeyfield Bognor Elderly

Many elderly residents up in Scotland have been choosing a new way of living out their golden years. Instead of moving into a care home, many older people are choosing to opt to move into a recently converted garage or loft space to move into. This means that they can spend more time around their family as well as in an environment they are more comfortable with.

Garage Conversions Glasgow

Garage conversions in Glasgow have been quite popular in recent years, particularly in the UK where there are ever more people owning bigger and more expensive cars. It is also the case that Britain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, making home conversions a popular option because they can be easily adapted to suit the existing layout. There are two types of garage conversion – flat roof and gable fronted garage conversions. The former uses separate roofs for internal access and the latter has a flat roof with additional gables which provide external access. Flat roof garages allow you to make better use of any available space and have the advantage that you can build it all from the same start, whereas a gable fronted garage requires building from the start from a different angle, providing opportunities for different design features to be incorporated into the construction process. The garage is designed to house the car and is not a storage facility, although the two may often overlap.

The Logistics

The majority of garage conversions in the UK take the form of additions to already existing buildings and as such require planning permission. This is usually obtained from the local council who will often grant planning permission for larger projects if they include at least three hundred square feet of open space on the premises. Permits can also be obtained to add on to existing homes and most garages are capable of being added on to already existing homes. These permits are however subject to availability and sometimes can take a long time to acquire.

Getting Older With Grace

One of the reasons that many people don’t like the idea of moving into a care is the fact that they are usually disconnected and feel very alone. The great thing about having your older relatives move into a converted part of your home is that you can still see them on a regular basis, and they can can still be given the correct level of care. This way they can live out their final years in comfort and grace.

We Got The Best Driveway Glasgow Had To Offer

by Abbeyfield Bognor Care Homes

This is the story of how we came to get a new driveway here at Abbeyfield. The situation presented itself last year after a cold winter had left our driveways and parking area outside our premises even more cracked and broken that it already was. When the building was made, there was only a small stretch of new tarmac that was put down outside the front entrance to make it smooth to walk on as you entered the building. The contractor had decided that the car park area would be ok with the old tarmac that wasn’t down for the previous building, but after around 5 years the cracks and potholes had simply gotten worse and worse. It had gotten to the stage where the potholes were quite frankly dangerous to our residents and visitors, so we had to call in the experts to get a new driveway and carpark area. This involved fixing some of the old holes and completely resurfacing the old tarmac that was far beyond repair, but we had to call in a driveway Glasgow based company.

Finding The Best Driveway Glasgow Company

We needed a company that was able to come out and fix our carpark area quickly, and we could not afford to wait as it had been flagged up in a health and safety report. The report had found several holes that were considered a danger to the health of visitors and residents, and they would have to be fixed immediately or we would be unable to use the driveway areas. This meant that we had to quite quickly find a company at short notice that would be able to come out and repair the driveway. After much searching, we were unable to find a local company that had the time to do it as quickly as we needed. Luckily, we were able to find a company a bit further afield that agreed to come out and fix the problem. The company was called Roadlay – a driveway company in Glasgow – and we are so grateful to them agreeing to travel to do the work that we thought we should give them some credit.

The Big Day

The company had stated that they would be arriving at 8am sharp, and that we should make sure that the whole carpark and driveway area was completely clear of cars and any other obstacles. They were indeed true to their word, and showed up with a small convoy of vehicles at exactly 8am ready to start. Our staff and residents watched with great delight as the workers got to work preparing the driveway and going about repairing the huge potholes. One of the workers actually commented that he couldn’t believe that it had not been fixed sooner, and some of the holes were far too big to be allowed anywhere near a care home. The team got to work and by lunchtime they had already resurfaced most of the car park area. They finished up by 4 o’clock, and they were on their way home back to Scotland. We are so grateful to the team at Roadlay and would like to say a massive thanks to everyone involved.

Our Electrician Glasgow Story

by Abbeyfield Bognor Care Homes

The coronavirus has meant a great deal of change and uncertainty to not just the country, but the whole world. It has changed our everyday lives in so many ways, affecting everything from our exercise to our shopping, and everything in between. We here at Abbeyfield have undergone a number of challenges during the coronavirus, from the expected to the unexpected. We have had to take drastic measures to ensure the safety of our staff and of course our residents. It seems that care homes are particularly vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak, and the figures are showing an alarming number of people who contract the virus are in care homes. On top of these safety measures, we also needed some electrical work done on our emergency alarm system, and managed to get the only electrician Glasgow had at the time to come down from Scotland.

The Last Electrician Glasgow Had

We had been in the middle of some important cleaning when our emergency alarm system went off. Our team of nurses rushed to find where it was coming from, which is indicated by a light above the room that is calling it. The problem was, none of the lights were going off, and after a full sweep of the care home, we found no alarm had been triggered. This mean that there was a fault in the system, and it also meant that the alarm continued to go off for the next few hours. The problem was, we couldn’t turn it off as then we would have no indication of an emergency, and leaving it on meant a horrible alarm that wouldn’t let us hear if a new alarm was triggered. We had to keep an eye on all the lights the rest of the day to make sure that there were no problems, and we had to get a specialist electrician Glasgow had that was able to come the next day.

12 Hours Later

During the night we had managed to deactivate the siren while keeping the lights functional, which was far from ideal but allowed the staff and residents to get some peace and quiet. The next day the specialist electrician arrived, and we were able to find out what had caused it. Turns out it was something very technical and boring, but all we cared about was that it was fixed. We thanked him for coming of short notice and during these troublesome times and he went on his way.

Coronavirus Measures

The technician was very sympathetic to our situation and also took measures to ensure the safety of himself and of the residents. The problems that were are facing because of the pandemic outbreak can all be made a little bit easier if everyone comes together to do their bit, whether this is staying at home or being careful when they are out and about. Essential workers such as the electrician that visited us are doing great work, and they have to be especially careful if thy visit a high risk place such as ours. We are pleased to report that so far we have not had any problems or cases at our care home.

Care Homes During Corona

by Abbeyfield Bognor Care Homes

There has been much talk on the news that the problem of coronavirus within care homes is quite a big one, how big exactly is the problem?

As a care home ourselves, we wanted to find out, so we set about trying to track down some quantifiable evidence on the subject.

The truth was quite disturbing and alarming, and came as a real shock to us when we read the results.

We have been fortunate enough not to have any deaths due to coronavirus here at our care home.

But it seems that not everyone has been as lucky as us.

According to the latest figures, care homes account for almost one sixth of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales.

It is very difficult to obtain an exact figure, and there are a number of factors that come into play when trying to determine a figure.

Perhaps the biggest difficulty is the two-week time lag for the data that is being collected.

This means that the most recent figures for deaths occurring in care homes are from mid April.

At this period, there was around 3000 deaths from coronavirus recorded in care homes.

This equates to around 16% of all coronavirus deaths, which is a huge proportion considering that care homes only make up less than 1% of the countries total population.

The worst bit about all of this is that the death rate is still rising, and the two week delay makes it all the more worrying.

The problem is that most care homes in the UK are private, which means that there is no official data on the exact number of residents across the UK.

It is also very hard to determine how many people receive some kind of care in their own homes from carers and helpers.

There is a real concern that the workers that visit these people are prime spreaders of the virus, since they come into contact with around 20 people a day.

Levels Of Care Within A Nursing Home

by Abbeyfield Bognor Care Homes

Any person, whether they are suffering from an illness or in the later stages of their life, needs care that is unique to them. There is no one size fits all approach with it come to caring for an individual, as everyone is different and everyone needs special consideration.

The problem is many people have the impression that care homes have a standard approach when it comes to caring for their residents, and that the service is not personalised in any way shape or form. This is simply not true, and most well-managed care homes have varying degrees of care and attention that they offer to their residents.

Some residents may be very independent and can go about their day to day life with minimal help from the care centre staff and be perfectly content. On the other hand, some residents may need a high level of care in order for them to be comfortable, and their levels of independence could be considerably lower than that of the other residents.

A lot of the time the level of care that a patient requires could change over time. For example, someone might spend a few years in a care home and in that time they could slow down and might require a little bit more help getting around and going about their day. The truth is care staff are very well aware of this and see it all the time, which is why are usually prepared in case someone takes a turn for the worst.

Most nursing homes have around three or four levels of care that they provide, ranging from basic and introductory care, all the way up to skilled nursing care for those residents that need full-time care that revolves around any medical illnesses that they may have.