The COVID-19 Recovery and Rehabilitation project was kindly funded by The Rayne Foundation to help care homes share with each other what they are doing to help individuals living, dying, visiting and working in care homes for older people to move on from COVID-19. This story relates to the Discover phase in Being appreciative. Being appreciative is a positive and motivating approach to developing practice and enhancing participation. It pays attention to the best in us, not the worst; to our strengths, not our weaknesses; to possibility thinking, not problem thinking.

If you have a story to share, please email us on mhlcharity@outlook.com.

As one care home shared … 

We have come a long way. This has been a tough journey, whilst we’re not completely out of it yet, we believe that we’ve gone through the worst of it. Things are beginning to look better and indeed, we have learnt a lot from the experience.

 

First of all, with our residents, they were once able to collectively consult with the whole team of staff members, meet together and enjoy a whole lot of things. They went from this level of openness to being completely shut off in a blink. But with the restrictions being eased, we went back to our residents, we organised forums during a dedicated period of consultation, to ask detailed questions about how they felt during the lockdown. Our residents loved this. They said that they felt involved, a sense of ownership and that they had a voice again. Of course, daily they had the opportunity to speak with staff one-to-one when we went in to see them, but the opportunity to express their views as a group had not been possible for so long. What was even more spectacular was that we had this consultation with our dementia community too. Instead of using clip boards and questionnaires, we did it as a fun game and movement-based activity. Staff from maintenance and reception joined us, it gave us this feeling of togetherness again, after such a long time of being separated.

 

Although relatives were not involved in the consultations, we updated them on the outcomes. This experience highlighted what we could do differently and what we could put in place to improve the experience of residents, relatives and staff. One thing we have begun doing is to have separate meetings for residents and staff, another for relatives and staff, and then a general meeting for staff. It sounds like a lot, but these have given us greater insight on peoples’ perspectives. The residents and staff meeting is more about games, consultation, discussing what’s coming up and what they would like to see. We’re listening to all groups, and the more we do these, the more it has helped us, we can listen and act. This is something we really value, and we’d like these consultations to be the backbone of our activities. We want residents, relatives and staff to feel that they are a part of what goes on in the home. We want to truly listen and then work together to achieve our goals.

How are you exploring what your residents, relatives and staff value most?