How To Choose the Best Care Home For Your Loved Ones

There are many ways to judge a care home. You can look at the latest CQC Inspection report, you could judge their proximity to capacity, you could even study the training levels of the staff. But every report will tell you something different. Then there is the walkabout. It’s the one way you get a real feel of what a care home is really like. So what do you look for on a walk around?

Turn Up Unannounced

If you want to get a real feel for a care home, then you should turn up and ask to speak to the manager. This will give you a few indications straight off the bat, how secure was the site, could you get into the home without anyone greeting you and checking that you should be there? Was the manager easily contactable, did it take staff ten minutes to even find them? All of this will give you a true picture of what real life will be like within the home.

Listen to the Noise

An outstanding care home should not be overly loud, but it should also not be deathly silent. There should be the sound of laughter, joy, and people going about their everyday tasks. You should hear games being played and people talking. This sort of noise is a great indicator as to what the normal residents get up to during their days. If you are looking at Care Homes in Somerset, are you hearing local accents, are you moving a local loved one into a home with other local people.

Ask About Qualifications

This might seem rude at first to ask someone about their level of qualification, but when you think about it, there is a really good reason to ask. Anyone who wants to work in care will have achieved a qualification or will be working towards one. That should be a given, but then you want to know how qualified they are, did they just do an online exam, or did they go to lessons and practice what they are now doing for a career.

Speak to the Residents

There are not going to be any greater or more reliable sources of information than the people who experience it first-hand. If you want to know what life is like when you live in that care home, then you need to ask someone who lives in that care home. The residents will be brutally honest, if they are bored, they will tell you they are bored. If they love it, they’ll tell you just as quickly. See how many insights you can gain from the best source of knowledge.

Sometimes the grades a care home earns are a great way to judge them, but you are not getting the full picture. A walk around and casual interactions with staff and residents will really help you shape your opinion on what makes a care home earn that A+ grade.