News
Tuesday 21st February 2012STUDY FINDS THAT CARE HOME RESIDENTS?EXPERIENCES EXCEED EXPECTATIONS
NEWS RELEASE FROM
THE REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION AND
THE PERSONAL SOCAL SERVICES RESEARCH UNIT
(PSSRU) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Issued 7
th December 2011STUDY FINDS THAT CARE HOME RESIDENTS’
EXPERIENCE OF CARE GENERALLY EXCEEDS THEIR
EXPECTATIONS
Most of the care home residents who took part in a study by the Personal
Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent told
researchers that their actual experience of living in a care home had been
better than they expected.
The residents interviewed for the study – once just after moving into their care
home and again three months or more later – generally found that they had
more say over their lives than expected.
They also felt their quality of life had improved, their health and other needs
were being met, and their social life was as good as or better than it had
previously been.
Results of the study show that, without exception across many different
aspects of their lives, the care home residents believed that they were more in
control of what happened to them – and in some instances much more in
control – than they had thought they would be before moving to the care
home.
Residents’ experience exceeded their own expectations with regard to:
* when they could receive visitors –
74% expected this; 94% experienced it
* coming and going as they pleased –
* being alone when they wanted –
* deciding when to get up –
* deciding when to go to bed –
* getting a hot drink when wanted –
* arranging room as they wanted –
* help from staff when they wanted –
* having a choice of meals –
* locking their room when they left it –
more
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Almost all residents felt safe, clean, appropriately dressed, comfortable and
warm.
Of the residents in the study who had not previously lived in a care home, only
39% had initially believed that care homes in general were good, with 21%
thinking they were bad. In the follow-up interviews conducted after they had
been in their new care home for three months or more, 84% believed that
care homes in general were good, with none of the participants now thinking
they were bad.
Relatives of residents considered too frail to take part in the study were also
interviewed. They told researchers that, for a substantial number of residents,
quality of life had changed from bad or very bad to good or very good.
In the initial study, only 17% of relatives thought care homes in general were
good. However, as many as 92% of relatives who were followed up three or
more months after their loved one had moved into a care home thought care
homes in general were good.
The study was conducted by the PSSRU for the Registered Nursing Home
Association (RNHA) during 2008 and 2009 to find out whether residents’
experience of life in a care home fulfilled, exceeded or fell below their initial
expectations. Funding was provided by the RNHA and the Department of
Health.
The 69 residents who took part were living at the time in 46 randomly selected
care homes (some with nursing and some providing personal care only)
across six different regions of the country.
The mix of the randomly selected homes included some with three, two, one
and zero star ratings to ensure that the sample was as representative as
possible of the range of care homes in England.
Study author Robin Darton of the PSSRU at the University of Kent said: “The
results show that, for the majority of care home residents who took part in the
study, their experience of living in a care home generally exceeded their
expectations. What is significant about this study is that it explored the views
of care home residents themselves.”
RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell added: “We are grateful to the
PSSRU for conducting this study and for providing an extremely new
dimension to the debate about life in care homes. It is clear that, for many
individuals, going into a care home makes a positive difference to their lives.
This challenges the assumption made by some commentators that older
people would nearly always prefer to stay in their own homes. In many
instances, this is simply not the case.”
END
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Notes to editors:
1. The
aims to conduct high quality research on social and health care to inform and
influence policy, practice and theory. Significantly, the PSSRU seeks to
ensure greater user involvement in research.
2.
residents’ expectations and experience, is a senior research fellow based at
the University of Kent.
3. The
care homes across the United Kingdom.
officer of the RNHA.
For further information please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
on 0121-451 1088 or 07785 227000
Robin Darton, Senior Research Fellow, Personal Social Services Research
Unit, University of Kent on 01227 827643