Care quality
Why CCTV is the care home’s friend
Lesa McAnulty, chief operating officer of the Ardale and Marbrook homes in eastern England, explains why it has adopted the usage of CCTV and outlines how the judicious use of it can enhance the quality of care of residents
Oakham Grange in Rutland – family- owned care provider Ardale’s first residential home with nursing - is just nearing the end of its construction period and one of the first things specified for this bespoke new build was CCTV. For Ardale’s further developments currently in planning or early construction, CCTV is as essential part of the specification as the doors and windows.
Five years ago, we built The Marbrook Centre - a specialist neurological, dementia and stroke care services provider in St Neots, Cambridgeshire - and at the time, the installation of CCTV in all of our communal areas was a difficult decision to take.
Why did we think about installing it? Well, unlike the majority of care services, the Marbrook rehab centre was going to be different in many ways. Given the nature of the service type, we knew that a large number of our potential residents would have significant communication challenges, thus not always able to communicate their concerns or complaints.
The responsibility of caring for people who are extremely vulnerable due to physical or mental illness is huge. Their lives are quite literally in our hands and poor clinical decisions or employing the wrong people can lead to catastrophic effects on the person receiving care. Our residents would be completely reliant on staff doing the right thing for them but, unfortunately, they may have a total inability to do anything about it if they do not. If they are uncomfortable, they cannot ask to be moved. If they are
worried or in pain, they cannot let anyone know. If the lunch trolley has passed them by, no-one may ever know. When you think hard about it and walk in their shoes for just a moment, their situation is actually very frightening. In fact, terrifying is not too strong a word! To respond to the needs of such people, care service providers are completely reliant on staff carrying out their duties in exactly the way they have been trained to. Yet any care service that boasts this is what happens in their establishments for 100 per cent of the time is delusional.
It is impossible to know what every member of your staff does all of the time. The best recruitment and training processes can minimise but not eliminate deliberate or accidental poor
CCTV cameras have been installed in all communal rooms, corridors and gardens. Cameras are never installed in or close to bedrooms or bathrooms
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practise. Any of their failings can compromise wellbeing, safety or life expectancy - just one wrong decision can be catastrophic.
So, when you have 81 vulnerable people as at Marbrook - each with specific care and/or nursing needs - being cared for by a large care staff on shift at any one time, the likelihood of something going wrong sometimes is very possible. If installing CCTV can prevent a small percentage of care failings, why would you not do so? So, why were we so undecided on the installation at Marbrook? Well, CCTV in care is controversial on the basis of it being intrusive, a compromise of privacy and dignity, and possibly threat to staff. Although commonly used in mental health and children’s services it is far less common and, in the opinion of some care professionals, less justifiable in other types of care services.
We were also aware that many people may not be happy to be monitored, so it could affect referrals and make filling our home a challenge and thus be a viability issue for the business. We also knew that it may impact on our ability to recruit
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • November 2020
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