Choosing the right care home for your relative is one of the most important decisions you have to make when it comes to their care. If your relative is able to be involved in the decision-making process, this is something that should happen. However, there are many factors to be considered when it comes to choosing a care home for a family member or other relation. Here are some of the most important.

 

Health and Wellbeing Needs

One of the most important and deciding factors in choosing a nursing home is the health and wellbeing needs of the person who will be living there. How to choose a nursing home for Dementia sufferers, for example, will differ from those looking to house a young adult with disabilities. Does your relative need specialist nursing care? Do they need to live somewhere with dedicated memory or dementia services? These are both extremely important factors when choosing a care home and should be the first port of call when enquiring about a care home.

 

What Services do the Care Homes Offer?

Another factor to consider when choosing a care home for your relative is the services that are on offer at your chosen care home. Many of our Select care homes have frequent visits from district nursing services to check on our guest’s health and ensure any problems are picked up on before they develop further.

However, care home services should not just stop at the essential. Here at Select Healthcare, we know the importance of creating a homely environment where our guests feel content. Part of that is taking care of needs other than just health.

Many of our Select care home services include things such as visiting chiropodists and opticians, whilst some of our homes even have dedicated salons where visiting hairdressers take care of our guest’s hair upkeep. This visiting hairdressing service is also available at homes where there is not a dedicated salon to ensure those living at our Select care homes always feel like their best. Other services such as dentists, speech language therapy and in-house laundry services are also available.

 

Lifestyle and Cultural Differences

No ‘how to choose a nursing home’ checklist would be complete without including mention of important lifestyle and culture differences your relative may have that should be considered. When choosing a care home, it is important to figure out whether a gender-mixed residence is important to you. If this is an issue, be sure to discuss this with your care home provider to ensure that your needs are met.

Many of our Select care homes cater for a wide range of cultural groups in a sensitive and thoughtful way. For example, our Plas Rhosnesni care home in Wrexham caters for many different cultural groups including South African and Indian cultures specifically and has a particular focus on those whose first language is Welsh to ensure all of their cultural and linguistic needs are met. Religion is also often an important consideration for our guests so this should be discussed with your chosen care home to ensure there is provision for this for your relative. The majority of our care homes offer religious services as one of their regular care home services to ensure our guest’s spiritual needs are met.

 

Find Information About Your Care Home Online

With the current climate, many care homes are not open to visitors at the minute. However, just because you cannot visit the care home in person currently, doesn’t mean that you can’t find out the information you need to make an informed decision on a good care home for your relative. Many care homes will have websites where you will b able to find out the information you need on the internet. You should also be able to find the telephone number of the care home in order to talk to the care home manager or an appropriate staff member to find out more about what the home offers and if it would be suitable for your relative.

One thing to do before choosing a care home for your relative is to check the most recent inspection report for your chosen care home. You can do this by going to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website and entering the name of your chosen care home. This is an official report from an external monitoring body that should be able to tell you more about the care home you are looking at for your relative or loved one.

 

What Activities Are on Offer?

A big part of care home life is how you fill the hours of the day by keeping both mind and body active. Keeping this in mind, when choosing a care home from your relative, be sure to take a look at the types of activities that are on offer at your chosen care home. How do they keep guests in their care occupied and do they offer enough to keep guests mentally active? All of our Select care homes offer a wide range of daily and weekly activities to keep our guests entertained and stimulated. Some of our care home’s activities include things such as knitting, exercise classes, themed days, baking, puzzles and singing.

We also aim to get our guests out and about as much as possible. With some of our care homes offering things such as barge trips, visiting local garden centres for coffee and cake, taking them to the town centre for a shopping trip or visiting local museums. All of this helps to keep our guests both mentally and physically active which has shown massive health benefits across all boards.

 

Check for Vacancies or a Waiting List

Once you have decided on the perfect nursing home for your relative, you should then check to see if they have any current vacancies. If they do not then enquire about how long the waiting list is. At this stage, it is important to have a few different options on your shortlist in case your top choice does not have any current vacancies.

Do you need some extra help in choosing a care home? We offer a range of Select care homes across the country with something to fit every type of person and a wide range of needs. Why not take a look at some of our care homes? Alternatively, get in touch now to talk to one of our team and find the ideal care home for you and your relative.

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