Today sees a question raised in Parliament regarding the proposal of placing CCTV in communal areas of UK care homes.
Raised by MP Dominic Grieve, championed by Jayne Connery of Care Campaign For The Vulnerable, completely supported by Celeb FC .
(Click here for details of the Gala raising awareness of this campaign).
Many people will have had some experience with “care homes” – from having relatives residing in one, to having visited someone or have a home in a street near where they live.
The other way people may know about “care homes” is the perception gleaned from news stories about abuse of residents as this is what they see.
Care homes have a huge task – looking after people with a very wide variety of needs, some extremely complex, including challenging behaviour.
The Care Quality Commission themselves state over 100 elderly people a day are injured in the residential care homes they are residing in each day.
So there is indeed an issue BUT it is not always abuse that leads this, it could be falls, wandering & many other issues, some things that a CCTV operator could pick up on in a communal area, which is not being monitored by a physical member of staff.
Staff themselves when asked (anonymously) identified issues that they were unhappy with & felt CCTV may have assisted with avoiding this behaviour.
They also identified that staff moral, lack of training, to much workload & staff turnover etc all compound the problems.
This asks the question – would the implementation of monitoring of communal areas assist the staff & lead to a more safer environment. Wouldn’t it also provide a proper system of monitoring of who enters & exits the residential home & where & when the residents are at given times (allowing them to be treated respectfully & ensuring they are appropriately dressed) etc.
The question put today has really highlighted the positives of CCTV such as reassurance to residents & families that any occurrences in communal areas are recorded to allow easy investigation, has been put to the fore.
CCTV will also act as a deterrent to anyone entering a care home with not the best intentions & the managers in care homes will also be able to use CCTV footage to identify systems that need to be improved or indeed those that work really well & can be implemented elsewhere.
Lets hope the campaign really moves forward now.
Find out more by clicking the link below
CARE CAMPAIGN FOR THE VULNERABLE
Thank you
Karin
Celeb FC Founder
Carer of an Elderly parent with Dementia (Currently in a Residential Care Home)
