Reshaping home care for a better future

At Home Instead we have always championed home care as we believe that ‘home’ is a place that can nurture good health and overall wellbeing. It’s also the place where the vast majority of people wish to remain.

Yet for many years care homes have been the default place to age. The care home sector is more established and has provided a vital service for many people and long may it continue to do so as, for many, it’s the right choice.

But, against a backdrop of a rapidly ageing population, we have long-argued that there simply isn’t enough bricks and mortar provision to cope with the explosion in older people.

We also firmly believe that home care is more appropriate for many people. The pandemic has certainly accelerated both awareness of home care as an option, whilst also bringing the benefits of remaining in your own home into sharp focus.

Now is the time for our sector. And we all need to step up to the plate.

Demographics dictate that both care homes and care at home will play a vital role in supporting people as they age – my desire is to make sure that those who wish to be cared for in their own homes do so, leaving vital spaces in care homes for those who need and prefer that option.

Home care is evolving at a rapid rate – spurred on by the adoption of technology to support clients in the hours CAREGivers are not with them. Note that at Home Instead our view is that technology should be brought in to supplement, but never replace, personally delivered care. We are also seeing the introduction of new services such as live-in care that is now being offered by a range of providers.

Our recently appointed Clinical Governance Lead, Michelle Tennant (RGN), is helping us explore which interventions are needed to allow us to care for more people at home. As a result, we have started to introduce clinical observations such as blood pressure monitoring, pulse rate and temperature checks. Urine analysis, diabetes awareness and insulin administration are now also routinely available through our CAREGivers who have undergone a bespoke training programme to enable them to undertake these interventions.

It is without doubt that our homes will become ‘the hospitals of the future’ with home care providers playing a vital role in providing a wider range of support to clients. People’s homes are a viable and scalable option and, if better integrated into the health care system, have the ability to significantly increase capacity.

How many times, even before the pandemic, do we hear of hospitals being full because they cannot discharge patients? Well, I can tell you that the home care sector is ready and able to take these patients. What’s more, with quality home care, we can stop people from having to be readmitted.

We are already looking to the future of home care and our partnership with the University of York in which we are investing over £300,000 in a research programme in the coming three years, will help us, and the home care sector as a whole, to scope out exactly how best to care for people in their own homes. It will also look to influence government policy.

I’m really proud of the work our teams are already doing to provide outstanding home care. And as I look forward to 2021, I’m really excited about the opportunity our sector has to re-shape the future of care.