Nursing Home or Residential Home Care?

If you require information about residential care or nursing home care then in England you should visit the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which is a Government website. They offer a wealth of information you can trust implicitly. After all, they are the English regulator of the adult care industry, including private and local authority nursing homes and residential care homes. The main objective of the CQC is to improve standards of care whatever form that may be, including residential nursing care, dementia care, NHS care or voluntary care.

The aim of the CQC is to ensure the highest standards of care for all, to enable the best quality of life and allow people to remain independent as much as possible. This is achieved by helping persons who need care, and their family, access care providers best able to respond to individual needs. Appropriate levels of care provision should be available to all those in need and should reflect value for the amount of capital expended.

The Care Quality Commission is entirely impartial and base any regulatory actions against care providers on carefully evaluated strong evidence. Working with care providers and qualified advisers, the CQC structures the transparent guidelines and rules that should be adhered to by relevant parties such as nursing homes, residential care homes.

The powers of the English government’s CQC include registering, monitoring and inspection of private and public care providers to make sure that vital standards of care are maintained. They have strong enforcement powers to ensure quality standards are upheld. These include downgraded ratings, public censure, fines and closure if the standards of care are not being maintained.

The CQC provides data about the different types of care services available and their CQC quality ratings for ease of comparison. You can even order free inspection reports written by inspectors after they have visited a care organisation. The reports describe areas where the care provider excels and itemises points for improvement.

In Scotland the work done by the CQC is carried out by The Care Commission. This organisation was set up in April 2002 under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act and its job is to regulate all adult, child and independent healthcare services in Scotland. The Care Commission does this by making sure that all healthcare providers meet the Scottish Government's National Care Standards. They have a team of officers who inspect care providers and, from April 2008, they introduced a grading scheme for all the services regulated by the Commission. The aim of the Commission is to provide clear information to the public on the quality of a care service across different aspects of the service, giving the inquirer the information to make better informed choices and to improve the overall quality of care.

The sheer abundance of information can be overwhelming.......

There is such a huge amount of information available on various types of care providers such as nursing homes, home care (domiciliary), home nursing care and elderly residential care, that it can be overwhelming. It is easy to become confused by the myriad of choices available, relating to the various levels and types of care, then there is the inclusion of social facilities, staff qualifications, star ratings, medical specialisations, locations, not to mention costs and numbers of residents. No wonder many families suffer from information overload!

This is why people who pay for their own care often employ the services of a professional care counsellor who can take away the burden of sifting through the maze of different specialist care facilities and help to select the best and most appropriate care provider. This service is particularly relevant if you live some distance away from the person you represent or if they have special needs. A professional care counsellor can provide you and other family members with the reassurance that comes from knowing you have obtained the best possible independent advice.

Individual circumstances and needs are never the same and there are no easy fix solutions for everyone. The only route through the minefield of care options is for a professional care counsellor to listen to your specific personal requirements, aspirations and concerns. Your local care counsellor will have access to detailed knowledge about care providers in your area including home care, nursing care at home, residential care homes, nursing care homes, EMI care homes and assisted living care.

After all, this is a major family decision as well as a financial one that involves a loved one’s future well being and comfort for the rest of their life. In fact this point is so important that, following the publication of the Department of Health's long awaited report into funding adult social care in England entitled 'Shaping the Future of Care Together', the Association of British Insurers stated that families should seek financial advice before putting their relatives into a care home, nursing home or residential home. They went on to say that the political parties should agree to a radical and enduring reform of how long term care was to be paid for. However, as we all know, until this occurs, the impact of increased longevity will not only have an effect on the elderly but also the taxpayer who has to foot the bill through a higher level of direct taxes or council tax.

So you can see, it is essential that care counselling, and paying for this care, go hand in hand and the way to make positive progress is through a relaxed personal meeting with a specialist care counsellor who is able to take account of individual needs in relation to issues such as personal circumstances, finances, medical requirements and practical arrangements.

equityCare’s associate care counsellors are probably the largest organisation of its type in the UK. They have been established over 30 years and have helped thousands of families to achieve the best possible care and well being for their loved ones together with peace of mind for families.

For more information about care counselling services, simply call the freephone equityCare helpline on 0800 014 1640 or complete an initial enquiry form.