Broomgrove’s staff member of the month on the Support Services side is Kay Nicholson. She has been with us for 12 years – firstly as a Care Assistant, then an Activities Coordinator, and now as our In-House Trainer and Music Therapist. She’s a very valued asset and you’ll hear her sing-a-longs every Thursday, brightening up the home!
How to choose a care home
Choosing a care home for a person you love – very possibly a parent who looked after you and brought you up – is one of the most difficult decisions you can ever face.
Where do you start? Looking for a care home is normally only done as a last resort – when a person can no longer be cared for at home and all other options are exhausted.
Read our manager Donna Pierpoint’s column in the Sheffield Star – How to choose a care home.
Time for an end to ageism
I find it upsetting that we live in a society that’s riddled with age discrimination. I’ve devoted my working life to caring for the elderly and I’m frankly ashamed that a person can be refused a life changing operation or drugs because of their age. Despite being outlawed, ageism is still a massive problem in great swathes of society.
I often think it’s the fact I grew up largely without having a relationship with my own grandparents and missed out on that loving bond, that has given me the passion to champion the care and respect of old people. My grandad from my father’s side died when I was three; I never knew my grandad from my mother’s side and my Polish grandma from her mother’s side didn’t speak a word of English. At Broomgrove I’m entrusted with the care of scores of the region’s grandmas and grandads and my primary focus is making a positive and lasting difference to their lives.
One of the biggest thrills of my time at Broomgrove over the past few weeks was bringing closure to the death of Dorothy Sharp’s brother, 70 years after he went missing. She never knew what happened to him in the last hours of his life and, because he was lost at sea in World War Two, there was never a grave for her to visit. We managed to find out exactly what happened to him and even discovered a memorial to him in Sheffield – at the school both Dorothy, now 89-years-old, and her brother attended in the 1930s. We took her on a trip to visit it recently. She was absolutely thrilled – it was lovely to see.
I’ve now had 20 years experience in care homes – with over decade of those as manager – and it’s my mission to make the happiness of residents as important as the exemplary care they receive – I truly believe that should be the goal for any home. Though Broomgrove has a fantastic reputation for its nursing, its standards and it’s palliative care I’ve had the luxury of seeing examples of best practice from up and down the country and I’m continually introducing subtle changes in the way we do things to improve life still further.
No care home should ever become complacent. Residents should have as much independence as they want and a care home’s service should be tailored to them – not the other way around!
Donna Pierpoint is the manager of Sheffield’s renowned Broomgrove Nursing Home. She has 20 years experience in the sector, a decade of those as care home manager.
Why aren’t the old entitled to free care?
We spend our entire career paying into the NHS but at the point in our life when we most need their help, we have to pay.
And we’re not talking a few pounds – we’re talking tens of thousands of pounds, even hundreds of thousands in some cases.
People are given no choice but to sell their home to pay for the care they need in their old age.
This is the thing they’ve saved for their entire life and it’s the one thing they hope their children will inherit. But they’re given no option but to sell it.
There are ways of protecting some money, but they are bound by so many rules and very difficult to put in place, that most people don’t know about it. It’s often too late.
I think it’s a disgusting situation.
I’m the manager of a care home and I know I could never afford the care we provide – it’s crazy!
The actual cost of care has been questioned a lot in the media of late.
That’s an area of the debate I can agree on. I know exactly how much it costs to deliver good quality care.
Broomgrove Nursing Home is renowned for giving one of the highest nurse to resident ratios in the region – it’s one of the thing we pride ourselves on most – but it comes at a very high financial cost.
It’s same with everything else we provide. It all comes at a cost.
In three years time care homes are going to have to be far more transparent about their charges. At the moment, many are not.
I think transparency can only be a good thing.
A lot of privately run care homes will be running scared when they realise information on the amounts paid to shareholders will be readily available for all to see.
Broomgrove is the region’s only home with charitable status.
That means we have no shareholders and we’re totally committed to providing a quality service for our residents rather than being profit driven.
If we make a surplus at the end of the year it is ploughed straight back into the service we provide.
New rules coming into play in 2017 are set to cap the amount that any one person needs to contribute at £70,000. This is still a massive amount.
As usual, it’s the older generation being penalised.
I won’t be happy until every single old person gets free, round the clock care for every day of their life they need it.
They’ve paid for their NHS service – why aren’t they entitled to it when they most need it?
Why do cases of elderly abuse go unnoticed?
I asked a group of ‘A’ level students how many cases of child abuse they could name recently.
From the Rotherham abuse scandal to Baby P, the question brought about a flood of answers and talking points. I then asked them if they could name a charity devoted to the prevention of child abuse. The NSPCC was the name on everybody’s lips.
I then asked them how many cases of elderly abuse they could name. The room was virtually silent.
I followed that by asking them if they could name a charity devoted to the prevention of elderly abuse. Nobody had ever heard of Action of Elderly Abuse (www.elderabuse.org.uk).
Cases of abuse amongst the elderly are at alarmingly high levels yet so much of it goes unnoticed and, in many cases, unchallenged. Abuse of the elderly doesn’t create headlines like child abuse but it’s no less important.
A recent reported pointed to 300 suspected cases being reported every day – that’s 105,000 a year. Cases have risen by a staggering 28% in recent months.
So much more needs to be done to educate society about elderly abuse and put it in the public eye.
We experienced a very sad case recently where a resident was admitted for respite with bruises to her face, legs and arms.
We were immediately concerned these had been caused by the next of kin, and we were right. But it was the husband that needed as much support as the ‘victim’ – and that’s not unusual.
The husband had been the sole carer of his wife who was suffering with dementia. He’d been looking after her, on his own, for 20 years with hardly any support.
She was increasingly violent towards him and the bruises to her face were caused by him trying to get her to open her mouth to take her prescribed medication. The bruises to her arms were caused by him trying to get her into bed.
This, sadly, was not the wife he had years of happiness with. Can you imagine living like that 365 days a year with no respite?
He broke down when she was admitted and said: “I can’t do this anymore.” Thankfully we were able to help by supporting him to find her a suitable home. Broomgrove unfortunately doesn’t specialise in advanced Dementia and couldn’t care for her on a permanent basis.
Help is out there.
* Donna Pierpoint is the manager of Sheffield’s renowned Broomgrove Nursing Home. She has 20 years experience in the sector, a decade of those as care home manager.
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