Enter and view: Kara House residential care home
Download (PDF 803.29 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Trafford’s visit to Kara House Residential Care Home is part of an ongoing planned series of visits to care homes to discover what residents and their families think about the health and social services that are provided.
The home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 39 elderly residents. At the time of the visit there were 27 residents living at the home. The home provides personal and dementia care.
Kara House is a large, detached, Victorian four-storey house that has been adapted to provide accommodation for people over three floors. The basement area of the home is where the staff offices and storage areas are located. The home has a large enclosed garden with a level paved area with seating that can be accessed via steps and a ramp.
Healthwatch Trafford left 27 relative questionnaires with the home for mailing out to the residents’ relatives; 10 completed questionnaires were returned. These informed Healthwatch Trafford that relatives felt their loved ones at Kara House were treated with kindness and compassion.
On gaining entrance to the home, it was bright, warm and odour free, with a variety of notice boards displaying information for residents and visitors. On the day of the visit Healthwatch Trafford observed staff members working and engaging in a kindly manner with residents. Staff members we spoke to told us that they were very happy working at the home, the Registered Manager was extremely approachable, and they felt fully supported by the Management.
Recommendations
- Review care staff rotas to enable more time to be given to residents requiring one-to-one attention.
- Continue to highlight the dental needs of residents with the commissioners responsible for community dentistry in Trafford.
- Consider sourcing cue cards, to help residents whose first language is not English to communicate their wishes to staff members
- Consider using name badges for all members of staff to enable instant identification for visitors to the home.