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On the third anniversary of the first COVID-19 lockdown (23rd March 2020), My Home Life England shares new insights from care homes about their experiences of the pandemic.

‘Rebuilding Together’ is a report based upon conversations with over 200 people from 34 care homes across England.

It offers insight into what support care homes received during the pandemic which they felt was valuable, in order to inform future responses to crises. It also explores what support care homes need right now, knowing that the pandemic is still evident in many care homes, both in terms of COVID-19 infection and the long-term trauma that it has left behind.

Report findings

Teamwork, loyalty, resilience, commitment and connection to one another were critical for people living and working in care homes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. When support was absent, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, this led to people feeling alone and sometimes very scared. Care home managers expressed a desire to be recognised, supported and appreciated (on par with NHS colleagues), and for guidance and policy to be clear, consistent and timely.

They also identified a desire to sustain some of the positive changes experienced during the pandemic, for example greater knowledge of IT systems, infection control procedures and different forms of communication with families and community links.

The report concludes that there is a vital need for care providers, the wider health and social care system and local communities to invest in the wellbeing of care teams, to actively engage in open conversations with people living and working in care homes and to explore what would help them now and into the future.

Oluwafunmilayo Vaughn, report author, said:

“This report offers the privilege of delving into the rich lived experience of those who were at the forefront of a devastating pandemic. It captures stories of tenacity and grace, giving us insight into how care homes coped amidst such difficult times. Finally, the report highlights some positive ways to support social care into the future. We are immensely grateful to all those who have contributed to the creation of this report.”

Vic Rayner, OBE, said:

“The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the people living, working, visiting and dying in care homes. This report represents insights from people working in care homes across England at the time.”

Tom Owen, Director of My Home Life England, said:

“At My Home Life England, we continually learn from the people we work with in the care sector. We are conscious that, for many, the emotional and physical impact of the pandemic remains, and that COVID-19 and its impact has not gone away. This report reminds us of the commitment, care, courage and connections that exist in care homes.”

Oluwafunmilayo Vaughn is an associate of My Home Life England and has a research interest in frontline care staff, including developing and evaluating initiatives to improve wellbeing at work. Vic Rayner OBE is a widely respected expert in the field of care and has an honorary professorship at City, University of London. My Home Life England is part of City, University of London, based within the School of Health and Psychological Sciences.

The post ‘Rebuilding Together’ – Insights into how care homes coped during the pandemic appeared first on My Home Life England.

It was amazing to be joined virtually by so many people on Wednesday 22nd February 2023, as we shared the outcomes and impact of Care Home Friends and Neighbours (Care Home FaNs): Intergenerational Linking – England’s biggest intergenerational project with care homes.

We held a national webinar to share our findings from the project, as well as a link to our full research report and free resources.

Care Home FaNs: Intergenerational Linking was a national social action project that originally ran from 2019-2022 and was targeted in 11 less socio-economically advantaged areas of England. It connected young people aged 5-14 from schools and youth organisations, with older people living in care homes.

Over the past 3 years, more than 4,000 young people have connected with an estimated 2,000 older people living in care homes!

In addition, there have been other community connections and partnerships formed as a result of the local links, as well as children outside of the main project who took part in the 2022 ‘Become a Care Home Friend’ Challenge.

Of those surveyed:

• 95% of care home leads reported that residents appeared to enjoy the intergenerational interactions ‘very much’
• 91% of school leads reported that their children appeared to enjoy the intergenerational interactions ‘very much’
• 90% of school and care home leads reported that they would recommend intergenerational linking to others.

Some of the reported outcomes of Intergenerational Linking included:

Care home lead:

“I was surprised by the fact that the residents’ attention, mood, energy, and enjoyment all increased when the students came to visit – they’d come alive. It is nothing short of a miracle!”

Primary school student:

“Meeting older people has definitely boosted my confidence, talking to all of the care home residents has been a pleasure.”

Local broker:

“A teacher talked about some of her pupils with autism when they met residents living with dementia. Almost a mutual understanding and the comfort of sitting in silence. She said it was really beautiful to see.”

A large proportion of the school-care home partnerships created through the project have expressed a desire to continue linking, which is fantastic news given sustainability was a key aim.

Outputs

Download the full research report.

It can be cited as: My Home Life England and The Linking Network (2023). Care Home Friends and Neighbours (Care Home FaNs) Intergenerational Linking Project Final Report: Discovering the untapped potential and social value of connecting younger people with older people living in care homes. City, University of London

Download an 8 page summary of the full research report

This highlights the main findings in a shorter format.

We have also created a free guide to Intergenerational Linking.

It shares information, tips and learning from the project, to help create more intergenerational connections between schools and care homes.

Acknowledgements

It’s been a privilege to lead this project over the past 3 years, in partnership with The Linking Network and brilliant local organisations.

This project was funded through the #iwill Fund. The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £66 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities.

The Dunhill Medical Trust acted as a match funder for this project and awarded grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund. We are so grateful for their support throughout the project.

The post The outcomes & impact of Intergenerational Linking: what our research project tells us about linking schools & care homes appeared first on My Home Life England.

Care Home Friends and Neighbours: Intergenerational Linking was originally funded to run from 2019-2022.

We are pleased to share a range of outputs and resources from the project, including our full research report and a practical guide to Intergenerational Linking for schools and care homes, as well as other materials to help support new intergenerational links.

We hope the below will be useful to you:

A practical guide to Intergenerational Linking

Download our free guide. It shares information, tips and learning from the project, to help create more intergenerational connections between schools and care homes.

Care Home FaNs: Intergenerational Linking full research report

Download our full research report – “Discovering the untapped potential and social value of connecting younger people with older people living in care homes”.

Care Home FaNs: Intergenerational Linking research summary

Download our research report summary – We have condensed our full research report into an 8 page summary which highlights the main findings.

Additional resources

Our handbook above has lots of information about how to start an intergenerational connection. We recommend reading it if you are interested in starting Intergenerational Linking.

We also have the following resources to support you:

The post Outputs and Resources from Care Home Friends and Neighbours: Intergenerational Linking appeared first on My Home Life England.

These research briefing papers are based on a review of the literature on quality of life in care homes – first undertaken by the National Care Research and Development Forum in 2006.

The My Home Life team then undertook a ‘review of reviews’ from 2006-2016.

This review from 2006-2016 has resulted in the following updated research briefings.

A summary of new evidence is highlighted for each.

The post MHL research briefings on the 8 best practice themes appeared first on My Home Life England.

This guide on shared decision making was co-created by My Home Life England alongside an Expert Advisory Group of people working in a range of care homes.

The guide contains

• Case studies, positive practice thoughts and ideas to help support and develop discussions about shared decision making.
• Links to My Home Life tools and ideas that can support people in thinking about shared decision making.
• More detailed information including some of the legal and regulatory frameworks that influence shared decision making

Sections in the guide

• Introduction
• Supporting people who live in the care home
• Supporting team members working in a care home
• Involving a person’s support circle
• Downloadable poster
• Policy and legislation information
• Acknowledgements

View the full guide here:

Download

 

View the downloadable poster (p13) here:

Download

 

When reviewing the original 2008 My Home Life bulletin of ‘shared decision making’, we were conscious that, whilst a lot of the content was still really relevant and helpful, many things had changed. In particular we wanted this guide to be led by those working in care homes today and ‘shine a light’ on the great practice happening.

The post Supporting shared decision making in care homes: A free guide appeared first on My Home Life England.

Hello! I am thrilled to join Care Home Friends and Neighbours: Intergenerational Linking.

“As someone who is passionate about all things intergenerational, I think this project presents a meaningful opportunity to spark engagement between care homes and children across England, at a time when we will really need this connection most. The organisations we are partnering with over the three years of the project already bring their own expertise to what will be a very insightful journey, and I can’t wait to learn more.

I have more than 20 years of experience working in community development as a practitioner, but even more so as a researcher and educator. My first volunteering role was when I was 15 years old, and I learned straight away the importance of building ties with one’s community. I am both American and British, and during my career I have worked in a wide variety of places and neighbourhoods – from Miami Beach, Florida (my hometown) to New York City, across Romania, and throughout the UK.

In my academic career, I specialised in community development, social policy, and specifically social entrepreneurship and impact measurement. When on a break after having my son, I was approached by a friend to help her set up a new nursery in an residential care home for older people. My friend Judith and I then went on a multi-year adventure creating Apples and Honey Nightingale, which opened its doors in September 2017.

From then on, I have worked exclusively in the field of intergenerational studies. I have spent the past couple of years working with a range of organisations piloting new intergenerational models in housing, primary education, and care homes. My specialty is in designing impact measurement and research frameworks for intergenerational projects. I use a lot of different methods, depending on the size and scale of an intergenerational project. However, the values that are at the centre of any research endeavour are to empower the voices of participants and share learning far and wide.

For this intergenerational linking project, we are using a mixed method case study design, using a variety of methods including theory of change frameworks and appreciate inquiry styles. What this means is we will regularly collect reflective learning from our local community brokers in our project areas across England. We will also capture insight at our collaborative Sharing Network meetings. Each area project will work with their communities to identify the elements of their story they want to share in their own words.

In addition to this ground up approach, I will be exploring how each intergenerational linking project shapes and changes their local communities over the 18 month period. Our hope is that by capturing the learning in all of the areas taking place at the same time, we can create a body of knowledge to share with those interested in intergenerational studies. We will use this website as a space to communicate to our stakeholders the learning that takes place.”

Visit the project homepage to find out more about Care Home Friends and Neighbours: Intergenerational Linking.

The post Meet Dr Ali Somers – our new Research Fellow for Intergenerational Linking appeared first on My Home Life England.

The ‘Empowering Better End of Life Dementia Care’ (EMBED-Care) research programme began in January 2019. It is funded by ESRC-NIHR dementia research initiative and is led by researchers at University College London and King’s College London. Professor Janet Anderson is a co-investigator.

This is a long-term study with interim findings likely to be available to support care homes by the end of next year.

For more information, please contact: Janet.Anderson@city.ac.uk

The post EMBED-Care: My Home Life England linked research appeared first on My Home Life England.

This is the conclusion of data recently gathered by NW London CCG Collaboration and shared with City, University of London.

The My Home Life England Leadership and Professional Development programme was delivered to 42 care home managers across 2018. NW London CCG Collaboration gathered data to assess whether, beyond the significant impact delivered to managers themselves, the My Home Life Englandprogramme also led to any wider changes during the period of the intervention – specifically in relation to A&E and hospital admissions and ambulance call-outs.

The data captured indicates that, for care homes participating in the My Home Life England programme, there was a reduction in ambulance callouts, conveyances and A&E attendances compared to care homes which did not participate.

Results for care homes involved in My Home Life across NW London:

• Ambulance callouts – 14% decrease
• Ambulance conveyances – 16% decrease
• A&E attendances – 9% decrease
• Non-Elective admissions – 5% decrease

(Annual trends for 2018-2109 compared to the previous 2 years)

Although many factors will affect conveyancing and admissions rates, other data supports the likelihood that My Home Life had a positive contributing impact on the these figures.

Following participation in the My Home Life England Leadership and Professional Development programme:

• 59% of participants (care home managers) reported a reduction in inappropriate hospital admissions (n=31)
• 83% reported perceived improvements in the overall level of quality of practice in their care setting
• 83% reported increased confidence in staff’s ability to take the initiative
• 90% reported increased confidence as a professional
• 67% of participants reported that their understanding of what local health services exist that I can access had increased during the programme.

This evidence further supports the proven impact of the My Home Life England Leadership and Professional Development programme.

The post My Home Life programme leads to reduced NHS pressures appeared first on My Home Life England.

In this article Julienne speaks about the importance of relationships of all kinds in the care space – and the positive power of involving people in their own care decisions.

What inspires you about working in the later life space?

I’m passionate about inequalities, and you’ll always find me working at the margins. I feel the need to champion older people’s issues because I think ageism is rife in our society.

It’s probably not surprising then that I’m working with frailty and dementia, in care homes and at the end of life – I’m always looking at the sorts of places where not everybody chooses to go.

I think increasingly people are recognising the ageing population is presenting challenges that we all need to be thinking about and addressing because it’s going to affect us all. It’s not a case of “them”. Ageing is actually about “us”.

In terms of inequality, is there a sense that older people don’t often have a voice, especially in the case of their care needs?

Yes, because we’re an ageist society, we tend not to see older people as individuals, and really listen to what their needs might be. There are many other contributing reasons too – one of those being that not everybody wants to engage with this, possibly because they fear their own ageing and frailty. I think sometimes people don’t want to think about it until it affects them personally.

A lot of my work is about awareness and helping to see people as individuals, rather than as conditions. I look at the importance of involving them in decision-making about finding out what they want and what matters to them.

“For person-centred care to be delivered, we’ve not only got to think about the needs of older people but also, the needs of relatives who visit and the staff who work there.”

What is the biggest area for improvement in care at the moment?

Well, we have to recognise the funding crisis, which is just massive. That has to be the biggest issue to be addressed and improved. But for me, improvement is also about what we can do in the situation in which we find ourselves now.

People talk about person-centred care, but I don’t think we’ll ever really get to that unless we pay attention to relationships between residents, relatives and staff. I do a lot of work in care homes, and I feel that for person-centred care to be delivered, we’ve got to not only think about the needs of older people but also, the needs of relatives who visit and the staff who work there.

If we don’t think about the needs of staff, how are they going to meet the needs of residents and relatives? We’ve got to value and respect the work that they do because often the care workforce is very marginalised and stereotyped.

We also need to think about the relationships between care homes and their local communities and help the public engage with care homes more. And we need to think about care homes and the broader health and social care system, and how we can better support care homes to deliver quality services for older people.

What are the principles of best practice for you?

I’m drawing on the work of My Home Life here because that’s been a big focus for the last ten years, but I’ve worked in all care environments, and I think best practice is a set of principles that can be applied across a whole range of settings and ages.

My Home Life draws on four conceptual frameworks, and one of those is about developing best practice together. We pulled together the evidence for best practice at the start, by asking ‘What do we know older people want and what works?’

“Everyone’s business should be connecting with the most vulnerable citizens in our society – and there’s lots that we can learn from doing so.”

Within these there are eight themes, three of which I’ve already mentioned – maintaining identity, sharing decision-making, and creating community. The others are about managing transitions, improving health and healthcare, and supporting good end of life. We also need to think about keeping the workforce fit for purpose and promoting positive cultures.

Another framework draws on Mike Nolan’s work, looking at how what individuals have to say matters to them. He themed it around the fact that intrinsically, we all – whether you’re a resident, a relative, staff member or visiting student nurse – have a need to feel a sense of security, belonging, continuity, purpose, achievement and significance.

So we use that framework and encourage care home managers to think about it in care planning, appraisals, or in their interaction with relatives.

A third conceptual framework is focused on appreciative inquiry – and pays a lot of attention to the use of language. In traditional problem-solving scenarios, instead of seeing things as problems, the conversation begins with what’s working well and asking how we support that to continue. We can then envision how we’d like things to be, and how to work with others to realise that vision.

The last framework is about having caring conversations, and I think this is the most important one because if we all did this, the other frameworks would probably fall into place.

This draw’s on Belinda Dewar’s work and places emphasis on celebrating what’s working well, connecting emotionally and asking people about feelings, because we often don’t. I think having caring conversations helps us not only to find out what individuals want but can guide how we work together to deliver that. We need to be more curious and less judgemental.

Do you think we need more celebration and positivity around the work that is done in the care community?

Absolutely! It’s the little things that count, and sometimes people become very disempowered to care because they feel overwhelmed by the system. Yet actually, if we pay more attention to these little things, which are so often within our grasp, they can make a big difference.

How important is collaboration in delivering best practice in care?

I don’t think the care industry is naturally collaborative and what we’ve seen over the years, as a result, is an increase in a specialisation that has forced people to work in silos.

Now we are realising we need to break those silos down, and to collaborate much more, because we’ve got an ageing population, members of which are likely to have multiple things wrong with them – and they can’t have specialist teams going in to look at just one bit of them.

We’ve got to see people as people, and deal with their whole condition – and that is about health and about social care.

Do you think there’s an issue with a lot of research into best practice still staying quite theoretical?

Researchers and academic organisations often write for each other, and we get measured by our peer-reviewed academic papers. However, out there in the real world that is not necessarily what people are interested in. I think the academic world is waking up for the need to have more impact on the ground. But we’ve got such a long way to go.

One of the things I learned at the beginning of my research career was when I was feeding study findings back to multi-disciplinary teams, people really engaged and listened when we were able to communicate what the older people had said in their own words.

Researchers have got to be more creative about how they get their messages across, and for us, at My Home Life it is very much about storytelling and stories that come from the perspective of residents, relatives and staff – and those stories must be real.

The other thing is that we also need to learn from practice. Often out there in practice, people are having to work, in the absence of evidence. We need to learn from what people do and find out what they learn from what they do. It’s not just about academic research; it’s about practice-based research.

What area of research would you like to see more focus on?

Where I want to move to next is learning and understanding much more about community engagement with care homes. This includes how we can help the public engage with care homes more in the community – and I think by doing that we will see benefits, not just for residents, but for the public too.

We’ve got a social responsibility. Everyone’s business should be connecting with the most vulnerable citizens in our society – and there’s lots that we can learn from doing so.

Our thanks extends to the Elder Magazine for sharing the original article.  Our thanks also extend to Professor Julienne Meyer.

Follow Julienne Meyer on Twitter HERE.

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