Dementia@Home

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We assessed all the quality statements in the Caring key question.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People and their relatives told us staff treated them with kindness, compassion and dignity. Comments included, “It is hard to tell if [person] likes anyone now due to her condition and poor communication, but she smiles and seems at ease in their company” and “They are truly wonderful with [person]. Staff seem to have a delicate and magical touch with her that few people, even her friends, can achieve.”

The registered manager told us they completed observations of the support staff provided to people. They told us they were assured staff were treating people with kindness and compassion.

Health and social care professionals told us the service treated people with kindness, compassion and dignity. One professional commented, “This is their ethos. Staff have many years’ experience providing support to those affected by dementia and they really ‘get it’. People are enabled to live their best lives, making the best of what they can and want to do”.

Relatives told us people were treated as individuals. Comments included, “It is clearly more than a job for these ladies, they will do things such as bringing in a book about canals and boating life which was [person’s] own hobby, and then sharing and talking about the book and images".

Staff described the individual approach they took to meeting people’s needs, ensuring care was provided in ways that considered people’s preferences.

We found some of the terminology used in people’s records was not person-centred or dignified. For example, if people experienced incidents of incontinence this had been recorded as an ‘accident’. For some people we found their daily notes did not reflect all the care and support provided which made it difficult to check people’s needs were being met. For example, for 1 person having a 6-hour visit there was limited information about what care and support had been provided in that timeframe. The registered manager told us this would be addressed with staff. People had one-page profiles which recorded people’s wishes for areas such as things people liked to do or did not want to do.

Relatives did not specifically comment on independence, choice and control, but were consistently positive about the caring approach of staff.

Staff told us they encouraged people to do as much for themselves as possible, to maximise their independence. Staff said they were flexible during their visits, to respond to people’s wants that day.

Care records demonstrated people were being encouraged to be as independent as possible and making their own choices on how they wanted to spend their time. We observed in people’s notes staff were supporting people to go out into their local community and maintain daily living skills.

Relatives told us staff were reliable and arrived on time. People said they had a prompt response from staff in the office if they had any queries.

The registered manager told us they regularly checked people’s daily notes and completed observations to make sure support was provided in a timely way.

The registered manager told us about systems in place to support staff with their wellbeing. If staff needed reasonable adjustments to working patterns this could be considered. Staff told us they received the support they needed to do their job well.

The service had policies in place to support staff wellbeing, including workplace safely, training, supervision and regular appraisals.