Make sure all your staff are ‘on board’

One afternoon, whilst I was visiting my husband in the care home in which he spent the final 13 months of his life, a girl I hadn’t seen before pushed the tea trolley into his room, and asked me how Geoff took his tea. He’d been there a while so I was fairly sure she was new. “The chart on the wall says how he likes his tea,” I point out to her. “Oh yes!”, she says, “I didn’t see that!” She had been working her way down the corridor, so I knew she must have been into at least 6 rooms prior to Geoff’s, and each one of them had a Care Chart clearly visible once you were in the room. She’d have seen them eventually, but had they been mentioned in her training, the home would have had an employee better able to do her job from day one.

The story has a happy ending. A few days later I saw her again, and she was bubbling with enthusiasm. “I’ve been able to have all sorts of conversations when I go round with the tea trolley,” she explained, “because I can ask the residents about the members of their family that are on the chart, and talk about their hobbies, or even just comment on their favourite food or TV programme. Without the chart, it would be difficult to think of something to say.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself!

It’s exhibition season

It feels like I’ve spent more time at exhibitions than in the office recently, and there have been more I could have attended if time allowed. They range from the huge events at London’s Excel, with hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of delegates and dozens of speakers, to the more intimate Nottingham and Derbyshire Care Conference at Nottingham’s Belfry Hotel, where we dipped our toe in the water and exhibited for the first time. This was a much more modest event, just 30 exhibitors, but there was still an excellent line-up of speakers and, judging by the discussions with visitors to our stand, a highly motivated and enthused group of 100 or so delegates.

(The map on the wall in the picture shows where our products are now being used… over 600 care homes in virtually every county in the UK. That’s Linda taking an order by the way, and I’m the one drinking coffee – as per.)

It was great to meet care home managers and owners who are already using the charts, and even more gratifying to hear their words of praise, like these from Simon Hodgkinson, owner of Westcliffe Care Home in Nottingham…

“We have been using the care charts at Westcliffe Care Home for approximately 8 months. We believe they make a real difference to the quality of life our residents lead; because it means we get the things that matter to them right – particularly the small things that really make a significant difference. We do not often have agency staff but when we do they all comment on how useful the charts are. The charts get them up to speed very quickly which means they can deliver quality, individualised care immediately – and of course they have gone down very well indeed during inspections!”

Notts 13 Linda takes an order