The best caregivers in the county
Published: 02/05/2023
The Isle of Wight has been named the best caregiving county in the UK, as an age friendly island it is a great place to grow older, tackle isolation and prevent loneliness. There are many services that ensure people on the Isle of Wight are able to live independently in their own homes with appropriate care and support.
ISLE OF WIGHT NAMED BEST CAREGIVING COUNTY IN UK | IW Radio"This achievement is testament to the dedication, hard work and determination of our local care home and home care providers and their hardworking staff teams."
Right at Home Isle of Wight was recently rated Outstanding in our CQC inspection offering the island 3 Outstanding homecare providers; along with residential homes making up a total of 97% of the island rated Good or Outstanding, that puts us top ranked in the UK.
Our caregivers’ qualities and personalities are the foundation of building an outstanding team who deliver the best care to our island residents. There are many ways in which this can be achieved, most of which come naturally to our caregivers. Lets take a look at just a few of them:
Patience
noun "the ability to wait, or continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed”
The Stanford Experiments in 1960 carried out a series of studies on delayed gratification, it clearly and effectively showed that patience does matter, it allows individuals to be able to accept a delay and understand that the reward could be greater.
In terms of caregiving, patience is crucial. As people age their functions and capabilities can begin to slow down both physically and mentally. Even the simplest of things such a getting up from the chair or finding the right word can take a little longer and become an easy thing for people to step in a finish the task for them, but in order to maintain their dignity and independence (following person centered care) these are things that being a patient caregiver will bring great rewards for the client, they will feel proud and empowered.
Person-Centered care
Identifying the clients wishes, goals, needs, aspirations and their abilities allows them to feel respected and a commitment is made to their quality of care. By providing person-centered care and support to individuals allows them to remain independent and their identity remains intact, it has been found that it greatly improves individuals health and reducing the need for healthcare services and resources.
The Kings Fund within the NHS found that person- centered care can help individuals feel more satisfied; people can be encouraged to be more involved in the decisions made about their care and support that are appropriate to their needs; there is a positive impact on their health outcomes such as their blood pressure.
Ways in which person centered care can be given can include:
- maintaining the clients preferred routine
- allowing them to be independent in their daily living skills- doing tasks with them, not for them
- knowing their clients likes and dislikes
- allowing decisions to be made, i.e. what they want to eat, what they want to wear, whether they want to go out or stay in
- trying to find ways for old hobbies to be maintained and adapting them if necessary to allow them to continue these
A Positive attitude
Positivity is infectious and our caregivers can radiate positive emotions the moment they walk through the door. Studies show that 93% of communication is non-verbal; a lot of it comes from facial expressions, body language, gestures, tone and inflection of our voice and eye contact. When our caregivers enter their clients homes smiling with their heads held high and make eye contact, the first impressions are made and the tone has already been set; even before they’ve even said “Hello, it’s good to see you again! How are you?”. This can change everybody’s day, that positive morning call not only makes the clients happy and feeling good, it does for our caregivers too.
Listening
As we have already discovered, communication is only 10% spoken words, this means there are other ways that clients will be communicating with their caregivers.
Listen, watch and learn, once understood, caregivers can then use the information to deliver the best care. The art of listening is important for clients to not only feel acknowledged and understood but also that their needs are being heard and their care is being met.
Above and beyond
By implementing person-centered care, listening to their clients and being patient with their needs means the caregiver can go above and beyond in their delivery of care and support.
Going above and beyond normal duties of care is clear in the CQC reports that it has an influence on outstanding ratings, some notable above and beyond moments our caregivers have done:
- One lady used to run the deli in the local village, she often made big batches of soup. Since then she had never been back into her kitchen, a friend of hers used to try and find the best soup to give her but no other soup has ever been as good as the old days. With her caregiver they had gone into her kitchen and made her favourite leek and potato soup together, she said it was the best soup she had ever had!
- A gentleman loves playing musical instruments, he'd written a song with a music sheet too about his love for the village he lives in. The caregivers had practiced his song with him and then one day he went to our tea club where he had his 5 minutes of fame, we set up a ukulele group to play his song and then the other members had the lyrics to sing along to. He was very proud up there on stage and talked about it for weeks after.
- A lady of ours can no longer leave the house, every day she loves to sing along to her favourite songs and tap her feet to the music. For her birthday the business owner and her caregiver had arranged for a sing-along lady to go to her house to sing her favourite songs, she absolutely loved it and had a great time.
- Another birthday treat arranged was for a lady who loved horses, her daughter unfortunately had covid on her birthday so could not visit. A couple of caregivers had arranged to take her see a horse and then out for lunch after.
- Many of our caregivers own dogs, this is something they have realised is a great pleasure for their clients. No longer able to care for a dog but the love still being there makes for a great excuse for pooches to come on a care visit! It's a great moment to see their beaming smiles and belly laughs when the dogs show off.
Do you think you can become the best caregiver in the county?
Having read the qualities that make a brilliant caregiver, do you think you could fit this role?
We are growing our team, take a look at our available roles or give us a call on 01983 218318 to join the best team.
