Introduction Care homes are challenging settings in which to conduct research ( Brooks and Parker, 2019 ), owing to issues like time constraints ( Lam et al, 2018 ), low staffing levels (National Institute of Health Research, NIHR, 2021 ) and COVID-19 ( Fitzpatrick et al, 2021 ). These factors are likely to have evolved from the chronic ‘political neglect’ of successive UK governments ( Health Foundation, 2020 ) and may help to explain why research conducted in UK care homes is lacking ( Katz, 2011 ). Care homes are under-represented in research ( NHS
The majority of people in residential and nursing homes for older people are over 80 years old and particularly vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19. Almost half – 46 per cent – of all excess deaths in England and Wales from the beginning of the pandemic to early August took place in care homes. In addition, the excess death rate for recipients of domiciliary care was similar to that for care home residents (Glynn, 13 July 2020 ). The UK was not alone in experiencing a high death rate among care home residents: Spain, Belgium, Canada and the US were all hit
Introduction Care homes are a central component of the English adult social care system, with recent data showing that more than 390,000 older people reside in such service settings ( ONS, 2021 ). However, many care homes cease to operate every year for a variety of financial, regulatory, practical and political reasons ( Leyland et al, 2016 ). This raises profound questions about what happens to older people and their families (and indeed care staff) when homes close, and how best to manage such difficult situations to minimise potentially negative outcomes
211© Policy Press • 2013 • ISSN 2046 7435 Key words demential • care homes • family • discharge • choosing ar tic le Families, Relationships and Societies • vol 2 • no 2 • 2013 • 211–28 http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204674313X664905 Carers’ perspectives on choosing a care home for a relative with dementia Jeanne Katz, Caroline Holland, Kate Mitchell, Heather Gage, Nwe Thein and Bart Sheehan This article describes findings from a project that explored what happens to people with dementia (PWDs) following discharge from a general hospital to a residential care home
later life which may include options to relocate to a care home. However, little is known about older people’s decision-making around care and support in later life. This chapter draws on data from 30 in-depth interviews with older male and female residents of nine care homes in three districts of Tamil Nadu and addresses the following questions: i) what are the decision-making routes leading to relocation to a care home? and ii) how does culture and the political economy influence the care choices available to older people? The chapter concludes with some
Introduction People with dementia living in care homes in the UK have proven to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Alzheimer’s Society, 2020 ). They are at risk of increased social isolation resulting from lockdown and shielding policies, as well as being susceptible to poorer health outcomes. These circumstances have ethical implications for the care of people with dementia. There is a moral duty to communicate and highlight the impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, with the hope that their needs will be met in any
, personalisation policies in adult social care focused chiefly on domiciliary care. While the Care Act 2014 ( Department of Health and Social Care, 2014 ) stipulates that all service user groups should benefit from personalised care, including those residing in care homes ( Ettelt et al, 2020a ), to date, few policies have explicit goals and outcome measures for personalised residential care. Development of more personalised care practices in residential care has been supported by three prevailing concepts of person-centred care. The first is the consumer-driven ‘public value
Introduction Family and friends (referred to as ‘carers’ throughout this article) are an important element of care home (CH) life. Carers continue to provide care and support after their relative/friend enters a CH, though their roles and the nature of tasks undertaken may change ( Mullin et al, 2011 ; Hughes et al, 2019 ). Ongoing support by families has been well documented and includes: providing practical and emotional support; overseeing care quality; providing advocacy; helping the person to stay connected to the world beyond the CH; sustaining
with 24-hour care, provided through a combination of daily home carers and her daughters who covered the nights, she lived out the last six weeks of her life before dying in her own home. Her daughters and formal carers felt this was the ‘peaceful death’ that in many ways she had been determined to achieve. She did not have to move to a care home. The need for long-term care Jo’s experience can be seen as a period of long-term care (LTC). This phrase relates to forms of health and social care, formal and informal, for people in need of medical support and
87 FOUR Narrative identity and resilience for people in later life with dementia living in care homes: the role of visual arts enrichment activities Andrew Newman, Bruce Davenport and Teri Howson-Griffiths Editorial introduction This chapter is based on data from a large-scale, mixed methods project wherein groups of people with dementia were invited to take part in visual arts activities. The project generated a wide range of data, but this chapter takes a fine-grained approach to analysing the qualitative data from the project. Through this the authors
