Healthwatch Rochdale publishes findings and recommendations after Enter and View visit at Lyndhurst Care Home.
The home was the sixth home visited as part of Healthwatch Rochdale’s programme of Enter and View visits to care homes in the Rochdale borough.
Residents and family members spoke positively about the activities available in the home and residents appeared generally content. However, on the day of our visit some residents were waiting in the dining room for their lunch for thirty minutes causing some residents to become agitated.
The home had mechanisms in place for people to provide feedback and had a ‘you said we did’ board to demonstrate how feedback had been acted on; family members also spoke positively of the manager acting on previous feedback. Some areas of the home seemed to lack colour and appeared drab, especially the resident’s bedroom hallway, so the recommendation was made to paint bedroom doors and handrails in calming dementia friendly colours such as blue, green and lilac
Following the visit four recommendations for improvement were made which included:
- have information such as likes, dislikes and what is important to a resident available in their bedroom
- delay bringing residents into the dining room if lunch is delayed; preventing residents waiting around and getting agitated
- painting bedroom doors and handrails in calming dementia friendly colours such as blue, green and lilac
- First aid boxes to be checked and reviewed on a monthly basis and to be replenished after usage
The Enter and View team identified positive areas at Lyndhurst and saw that the home actively encouraged residents and family members to provide feedback. The home also demonstrated how feedback was acted on and this is something we encourage all homes to do to demonstrate how sharing feedback can make a difference. The team did identify areas of improvement and so four recommendations were made based on what we observed and was told by residents and family members on the day of the visit