Image source |
If you’ve spoken to anyone about senior care in the past, you’ve probably heard the horror stories which come with this industry. In the past, companies weren’t very good at looking after their service users, often considering profit before anything else. But this has changed over the last few decades though, and care homes are far more friendly than they used to be.
Both my mum and mum-in-law work as carers within residential homes and it's clear to me that they love their jobs, caring for the service users as they'd care for their own family.
So how exactly has the industry changed? To give you an insight, this post will be exploring some of the key work which has been done over the years to improve this field.
Independence
One of the biggest fears people have as they get older is that they will lose their independence. As your body gets weaker and suffers from more and more issues, it will be hard to keep control over each element of your life, eventually making it hard to do even the simplest tasks, like
going to the toilet. In the past, this was handled by treating the patient with little humility, getting the job done as quickly as possible. Nowadays, companies work hard to interfere as little as possible. This ensures that people can do things for themselves for as long as possible, improving their quality of life by a huge margin.
Quality Residences
When you see homes in TV shows and movies, they always look glum and depressing. I mean, in real life, nowhere is always happy, especially as a lot of people will pass away in these facilities, but that doesn’t mean that they have to be unpleasant. Companies like Porthaven and many others have worked extremely hard to create a care setting which will make most people feel comfortable. Being able to provide someone with a nicer home than they one they used to own is a great way to handle care, especially as the population gets older. You can find reviews for these sorts of establishments all over the internet and it's always good to check them out.
Professional Staff
It takes a long time for any field to mature and develop, often requiring a lot of assessment and monitoring along the way. The field of care has benefited from a lot of attention over the years, and this means that researchers have had the chance to figure out the best way to handle the tasks they have. Care professionals will be extremely well trained, limiting the chances of mistakes and accidents, while also improving experience each service user has. Even something as simple as moving someone across a room can be complicated when they can’t support their own weight. It takes proper training to be able to do this, making it crucial that the right people are doing it.
It makes sense that some people worry about this sort of business. Care homes have had a lot of negative press over the years, but this can sometimes lead to ignoring the successes they’ve managed to achieve and somewhat tarnishes the good, hard work that's put in. I think it's an important topic to start talking about, highlighting it's evolution. That's what I'm talking about when I say 'dare to care'.