Moving into a care home can be a daunting prospect for anyone, particularly those affected by neurological conditions.
Exemplar Health Care, a provider of specialist nursing care for people living with a range of complex needs, offers a programme to make this process as easy as possible.
Through its Service User Ambassador initiative, residents at one of the group’s 34 nationwide homes are given an added purpose while living there.
Those involved are given the chance to represent their views and that of their peers during monthly Service User Council meetings.
Ambassadors work with the management to make the whole living experience as enjoyable as possible for its residents, giving them a direct say in the ongoings of each home.
This has allowed those involved to have a lot more purpose in the home according to the scheme’s founder Sophia Feurtado.
“They benefit from it a lot,” said the Service User Engagement Manager at Exemplar Health Care. “And it really supports them in a number of ways.
“It builds their confidence, it helps them to practice new things and it really gives them a purpose around the homes.
“The Service User Ambassadors are looked up to and recognised in the homes by both residents and staff.
“They actually have an ID badge and their photos up on the wall, so we’ve tried to make them feel part and parcel of the fabric of what we do.
“Listening to them it does all sorts of things for them, it really helps them and they just really enjoy it.”
The initiative also offers people the chance to get involved in a range of jobs around each home.
This can include things like blog writing for the company’s website, volunteering for duties in homes or organising activities for the other residents.
In recent years, Service User Ambassadors have helped run company-wide events such as the Exemplar Elite Games and Exemplar’s Got Talent.
Some users can also get involved in the recruitment process for each home, such as Chris at Thames House in Rochdale.
He is a long-time Parkinson’s patient having been diagnosed with the condition aged 30, but helped set up the scheme as the founding Service User Ambassador.
Chris now plays a crucial role in introducing new staff to his home, sitting in on interviews while also assisting with the induction process.
He sits down with new staff to make them feel welcome, while also explaining to them what life is like at Thames House and giving them tips on how to help its residents.
“We’ve been running the scheme for four years now,” Sophia said. “Chris was one of the first people that I recruited into the role.
“He tells our new staff how to relate to the service users, what sorts of things help him and what to avoid doing.
“It’s a really interesting discussion and dialogue and he effectively talks to all the new staff from the point of view of somebody who’s living in one of our homes.”
Residents have really embraced the scheme, with Sophia recalling one Service User Ambassador who is using it to rebuild his confidence which he hopes will eventually lead to paid employment.
The feedback from residents has been overwhelmingly positive, helping empower them and give them a sense of purpose.
Giving users a say in ongoing work in each home has been one of the biggest reasons for this, something Sophia set out to do from the start.
“Exemplar Health Care is a company that is supporting and looking after people, so they need to be an influential part of the discussions about their home, and they need to be influencing how things progress in our homes.
“Our care focuses on maximising independence, building everyday life skills for people and empowering them to live a fulfilled life.
“Some of the Ambassadors have said to me it helps them rediscover qualities and skills that they perhaps may have forgotten that they have.
“It also helps them to build new skills and continue to act as an integral part of our society.
“People come to our homes with a history, they’ve had a life, they’ve done a lot out in the community, so why not continue to do that while they’re living here?”
Sophia also said these opportunities are changing people’s perceptions of what it is like to live in a care home.
“You often hear about when people come into care homes they think that it’s the end, they don’t know what to think, but they’re not expecting any of these types of opportunities to be available to them.
“It’s important that they don’t feel like that as it’s about maximising the quality of life for them and giving them a purpose.”
