Staff training


relationships. Participants are taught how to recognise things such as loneliness, self-confidence, self-esteem or the desire to find a partner. The training also aims to encourage colleagues to empower and support people living in care homes to express their sexuality and have a range of relationships. By talking openly about forming and maintaining close relationships in care homes, it ensures that living in a care home does not signal the end of relationships. For many people living in a care home,


physical intimacy continues to be a rich source of comfort, support and pleasure. Where difficulties do arise, it is important for care workers to remember that there is no single ‘normal’ way of dealing with this very personal issue. While it may be a difficult subject to


discuss, by colleagues encouraging an open and conversation around such topics, they are in turn normalising it. The training is designed to be as


interactive and informal as possible, using videos of real people and their experiences in care settings to recreate scenarios. It involves group exercises, debates and discussions, going into the ‘nitty gritty’ about how and when a person may want support with these needs. The training is designed to be done


face to face, to encourage open and honest conversations. The training aims to encourage people to get past their pre conceived notions and separate their own opinions from the rights of service users. The team are taught to generate frank and open discussions as well as share personal experiences, with


We want to encourage and support people to feel comfortable and confident expressing their sexuality and sexual needs as they wish, and in seeking and exploring relationships of all kinds, in a way that promotes their choice and dignity, and ensures their safety


the overall aim of creating a supportive atmosphere for people living in Exemplar Health Care’s homes. Once they have completed the


training, colleagues will be armed with the ‘know-how’, so that disabled people can exercise their right of sexual expression in a safe and legal way. The training started in June 2021 and is being offered to all Exemplar Health Care colleagues.


Life is all about choice We are all sexual beings – we all want to be loved and we all crave intimacy at times, and that should not be any different for people who live in care homes. However, it is not just about sexual relationships, it is also about platonic relationships. We all have friends and people we like


to be with and interact with, we want to give the people who live with us the same opportunities. Life is all about choice. We want to


encourage and support people to feel comfortable and confident expressing their sexuality and sexual needs as they wish, and in seeking and exploring


relationships of all kinds, in a way that promotes their choice and dignity, and ensures their safety. We know that some people find these


conversations uncomfortable and difficult, which is why we have a team of clinical experts who are committed to supporting the programme and ensuring that we make real change for the people we support. Over the next six months, we hope to embed this culture in our recruitment, induction and supervision process.


Taking an adaptive approach For the tactics used for the training, we have had to be quite adaptive as different demographic groups of staff have different views and values. Despite this, we have found that having an honest and open discussion in a safe environment where colleagues can discuss their worries or concerns around the topics we cover, has proved to be the best approach. We have had some amazing colleagues


share their own, often difficult experiences which then has broken the ice. We give our colleagues a reasonable


amount of autonomy when delivering the training. They do not need to follow the usual ‘training’ type format, filling in documents and taking notes, and so on, but they do need to listen, discuss and share experiences, and - above all - keep an open mind. In order to teach colleagues how


to cope with sensitivities, they are encouraged to use actual examples from past events where things were not handled as well as they could have been and highlight how they could have been done better. The training team is made up of


experienced registered nurses so they are able to pull out examples where


20 www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • November 2021


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