New opening
cameras in the communal or residential areas at all,” says Richard. “Obviously, the key area is overnight and residents getting out of bed in the middle of the night and stuff like that, but we are still very much on the track that that’s a very visual thing, so we have people going around and just making sure that residents are doing what they need to do. Residents get into to a pattern where they might get up at say three o’clock in the morning and go to the toilet, and once we know that, we monitor them around three o’clock to make sure they get back in bed.
“There are acoustic systems, there’s pressure monitoring systems that we’ve looked at, but I think they’re very much driven around the fact that if you put those systems in, you don’t have to do the physical monitoring, so rather than having five people on at night you have three people on because you don’t have to do as many rounds. But we want people to go and have a look – the management team want people to go and make sure that Mr. Smith is in bed, or if he’s got out of bed, that he hasn’t had a fall or whatever. “So it’s still very much on the physical inspection rather than relying on a bit of
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technology and trying to reduce costs.” Phil Holding agrees: “It’s a home – it’s not a hospital. I think it’s quite important that it maintains that. If you are being watched by CCTV wherever you go, whatever you do, it doesn’t feel like home,” he adds. “I think if you are trying to sell the home to a resident or resident’s family, and you’ve got monitoring in place, whether it be acoustic or visual, then the ultimate reason for doing that is to reduce your costs somewhere else,” says Richard. “We will say to the family: we will normally do two, three, four checks during the night, but it means opening the door to make sure that
everything’s okay, and do you want us to do that? Some families will say ‘I think maybe no – it’s alright, unless things change … ’ Some people don’t want somebody opening the door, but some of the families might think ‘well, I’d like that reassurance’. So again, it’s that individual opportunity for us to do something for that resident or the resident’s family that suits them, rather than saying there’s a camera up there and, whether you like it or not, you get monitored.”
Finally, Oakland have made sure that residents are able to see and enjoy the home’s outdoor space. Ground floor rooms have doors opening onto outdoor patio areas, and there are first floor balconies leading off communal areas (with, I should add, full-length safety-glass screens to prevent accidents) with views over the gardens. The grounds were still in the process of being completed when I visited, but already, turfing and paths have been laid, and a greenhouse and shed installed. Residents will be able to get their hands dirty by getting involved in planting and pottering about, and should they decide to plant and cultivate an allotment, Maplewood Court certainly has the space. n
www.opeque.com | O7831 873355 September 2022
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com 35
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