“It’s just as important that hospices learn from care homes, in particular their expertise in person-centred dementia care which in most case will be better than in hospices, as that’s not hospices’ bread and butter.”
While whittling down to numbers how we best meet the health and care needs of the UK’s ageing population might seem like an oversimplification of a complex issue, they do make a persuasive case.
St Christopher’s Chief Executive Helen Simmons feels passionately that the sheer size of the care home sector, in which she worked for almost a decade as Chief Executive at Nightingale Hammerson, should indeed persuade those that work in it and the sector where she’s in now, hospices to work smarter together.
“What we know is that there is a growing demographic of older people. There are 9,000 care homes and 220 hospices.
We each need to understand our strengths, that care homes and hospices are converging in some ways, but also different, respect our lanes and counter some of the snobbery that can exist.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could work smarter together so that all care homes are as self-sufficient as Nightingale Hammerson – providing quality end of life care for almost all their residents with minimal need for support from hospice or hospital?”
Learning more about each other’s strengths and focusing on opportunities for sharing skills is the future model Helen envisages and is the reason why she instigated the co-hosted conference The Future of Ageing, with Nightingale Hammerson.
The last 15 years saw a major shift. A decade ago, far more residents died in hospital. Now as many as 98% will stay in the home right up until the end of their life in the best care homes. That comes through cultural change and close collaboration and extensive training.
Helen points to Public Health England data spotlighting London as the part of the country where the most people with dementia are dying in hospital as a wake-up call to everyone working in health and social care in the capital to collaborate more closely to ensure better outcomes.
“It’s just as important that hospices learn from care homes, in particular their expertise in person-centred dementia care which in most case will be better than in hospices, as that’s not hospices’ bread and butter.”
Helen is particularly excited about one of the speakers at the conference – Ruth Rolle – whose lived experience exemplifies the crucial role care homes can play. Helen met and got to know Ruth, who has a degenerative condition, during her respite stays at Nightingale.
“Ruth would come once or twice a year. It felt like home to her, she thought the care home was fantastic and experienced wonderful care and support.
She said these stays provided her with greater pain relief than her Fentanyl patch. That speaks to me of the ethos of hospice, addressing total pain, and of Dame Cicely when establishing St Christopher’s. And now, because Ruth feels so comfortable there, she has said that when it comes to the end of life, Nightingale is where she would like to be.”
Helen hopes that examples of lived experience like this will instill confidence in the care home sector.
“Lots of care homes are very thankful that there’s a hospice nearby to support them. I would encourage them to step back and reflect on what they can do already and realise that many are really good at caring for people at the end of life.
If there’s one thing that I’d like people to take away from the conference it is that we have to learn from each other and link our respective teams together. Conversations need to happen more frequently, and they need to be on the basis of mutual respect and based around the goal of upskilling each other so we can all work better together for people at the end of life.”
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