Enter and view: Elvaston Lodge Residential Home revisit

Healthwatch Derby conducted an Enter and View on Elvaston Lodge Residential Home, Derby, a privately owned nursing home providing personal and dementia care for up to 42 adults aged 65 years and overand several day users. The visit was conducted on 02nd May 2017.

The visit was arranged as part of Healthwatch Derby’s enter and view schedule.

Observation by the enter and view representatives reported that:

Environment:

Everywhere looked very clean. There was a slight odour on entering the building. Hand sanitisers are located in the corridors and handrails in the corridor were clean and uncluttered. There is a small garden overlooking the adjoining school playing fields. There is also a patio area with garden furniture, a bird table and a sensory garden including chocolate and curry smelling plants.

Facilities:

A small car park is available at the back of the building, but there is plenty of on street parking available. The door between the entrance hall and the main part of the home is operated by a keypad for security reasons. Only staff members know the code.

There is a new call system in the corridor which alerts staff in the right area of the building if a resident needs help. Downstairs is a large room which is a dining room at one end and lounge at the other. The chairs in the lounge are arranged in small groupsso residents can choose whether to sit on their own or with other people and can either sit and talk or watch television.The upstairs lounge and dining room is very similar and also has birds in a cage in a corner. Chairs in the lounges are all of the same style but with a range of wipe clean coverings Patio doors from the downstairs lounge lead into the garden. Bedroom doors have a picture and first name of the resident and the room number on them. All rooms have a bed with a call system nearby, wardrobe, drawers, chair, and an en-suite toilet and wash basin –residents have the choice of using a wet room or bathroom. Each room has one feature wall decorated in wallpaper which gives a homely feel. A curtain provides privacywhen requiredin the shared room. Residents are able to provide their own furniture and are encouraged to personalise their rooms with photographs and so on.

Information:

Elvaston Lodge has a large, clear sign on the side of the building. There are clear signs with words, pictures and arrows round the building pointing to different rooms and areas. Toilet doors are clearly signed and have pictures on them.In the lounge there is a whiteboard with changeable day, date, month, season, weather and residents’ birthdays. Lots of reminiscence pictures and items are on display including old adverts, pictures of old actors anda mural of Iron Gate with a bus stop and bench. Lists of staff members who are medication, insulin and first aid trained are displayed in the corridor. Dignity of the residents is obviously very important –there is a dignity tree with expectations written on the leaves and a list of the 10 dignity do’s on display. Information is displayed about Dementia Friends and there is a forget me not collage.

Activities:

A dedicated Activities Co-ordinator is at Elvaston Lodgemost days and there is an Activities Room upstairs which can be changed into a tea room or café which makes the residents feel they have gone on an outing and the room is going to have a window mural. The variety of activities available for residents include armchair exercises, dancing with ribbons as wrist exercise, baking, visitors giving talksas well as pat dogs and ZooLab, a Wii, parachute games, hopscotch, crafts, artwork,

The primary school next door sends choirs, some of the students read to the residents and the nursery children bring flowers and cakes. A singer and dancer entertains the residents once a month and there is rock and roll every six weeks. Some residents take part in simple household tasks that they would have done at homesuch as pairing up socks, sweeping up leaves, and setting and clearing the dining table, residents are going to be able to get involved in growing vegetables in the garden. Every resident has an activity diary detailing their progress and mobility which is given to them if they move to a different home and is given to the families of those who pass away.

STAFF:

Staff were seen to be interacting well with the residents and attending to their needs. Staff members eat with the residents which gives them opportunity and time to talk to them and get to know them without interruption. There was a good ratio of approximately one member of staff to three residents during the lunch service, all staff members were wearing aprons.When staff are talking to residents they use their preferred name, whether it is their first name, a nickname or Mr or Mrs and their surname .Staff members do not wear uniform to help create a more relaxed feel to the home. However, they do wear clear name badges to help identify them.

All food is tasty, hot where appropriate, well presented and obviously homemade.