What matters to us: Older people’s experiences of living in a care home

This summary outlines the key findings and recommendations of interviews undertaken by Healthwatch Sheffield with residents of residential and nursing home and their relatives during July-August 2022.

We wanted to understand more about older people’s experience of living in a care home in order to help shape the work taking place around the provision of adult social care in Sheffield. Our aim is to include the voice of residents in care homes so that commissioners can develop specifications for a service that best fits in with their needs and what is important to them.

This report is the result of speaking to 16 older people living in residential and nursing care homes in Sheffield. We also spoke to 5 relatives of care home residents, visited 6 homes and heard about another 2 which we were unable to visit. The care homes in this short study were the ones that were happy for us to visit and speak to their residents.

Our findings suggest that having the opportunity to choose which care home they moved to, as well as having choices in aspects of everyday living, such as food, was of high importance to residents. The ability to influence changes within the care home was not an opportunity that most felt was available to them, whether the changes they suggested were large or small.

Positive relationships with other residents and staff were highly important for a sense of connection and self-worth, particularly for those who had no available family or friends or for those in care homes who relied on agency staff. Whilst residents largely felt that their private rooms were adequate for their needs, most residents spoke of their wish to go outdoors and take part in activities that felt meaningful to them.

Most people reported good access to healthcare and additional services such as dentist, optician and chiropodist, whether they chose to see them or not. There are a number of examples throughout the report where we have focussed on good. practice and innovation in the care homes. One home was holding regular resident’s meetings, whilst another was facilitating friendships amongst the residents. There was also innovation in the use of space and activities in which residents took part and found stimulating.

Based on this research here are recommendations for commissioners and providers of residential and nursing care homes in Sheffield:

• Keep good access to healthcare, including GPs
• Improve information given to residents and families before moving into a care home
• Staff who are able to get to know the residents
• The council should check with individual homes to see how they are hearing the views of residents and relatives and acting on them
• Share ideas and resources to help homes offer a range of activities and connect residents with communities, support social interaction and friendships within the home, and prevent and manage conflict between residents
• Care plans need to be clear about how residents will be supported to do things that matter to them
• There is a need to better understand the experiences of older people from black and minority ethnic groups