Where The Heart Is An investigation into home care services
Download (PDF 5.02 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Dorset designed a survey for people receiving council and privately funded home care services across Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth.
The purpose of the project was to get an idea of how people are finding the services they receive and what, if any, were the concerns with the services.
The survey aims to find out how satisfied people are with the care they receive and how they feel about their carers. It also investigates if people know how to raise a complaint about the home care or provider agency.
Most people reported being happy with the care they receive. Continuity in care workers and consistency in care were very important. The issues raised were around communication between the service providers and the NHS acute care, primary care, community care and home care service providers. It was also determined from the findings that there needs to be an overall review of the commissioning process to ensure sustainability continuity and equity.
It was noted that most people would like to see the same care workers regularly or at least have more continuity in care workers in order to develop a trusting relationship. People would like to be listened to more and have more choice and flexibility in their care services.
Recommendation are included in details in the report.