terrabluhomecare

TerraBlu Homecare bowling finals !!

terrabluhomecare — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:34:51 +0000

Antony, Kirsty, Emma and Becky with team captain Laura.

Well we have just held the TerraBlu Homecare team bowling finals and what a great evening it was. Homecare is hard work and getting together to have some fun, and relax with each other and rev up team spirit was what our bowling evenings were all about. So last night was the culmination of the 2011 series and the winning team was Laura’s team of Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and the Rurals, who snatched the trophy from the previous winners Tunbridge Wells and Pembury. Antony Jarvis was the winner of the Golden Skittle awarded to the highest individual scorer.

Local business climate and the challenges for 2012

terrabluhomecare — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:59:31 +0000

Richard Gould, Managing Director of TerraBlu Homecare recently took part in the So Tunbridge Wells magazine business round table, with three other local business leaders. Hear what they had to say at http://tunbridgewells.so/business/tunbridge-wells-round-table

A Christmas poem !

terrabluhomecare — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:04:57 +0000

Received in a christmas card from Pat. So good we had to share it !

‘To TerraBlu

Dear Richard and his ladies all

They visit me when he gives the call

The girls who come into my door

Give me help and food and comfort galore.

Their kindness, help and cooking skills

Are given freely with much good will.

So Bless you all in what you do,

Good Luck, Good Health is wished for you,

And may Richard enhance your money too

So I raise my cup and say to you,

“Happy Christmas to you all “

A christmas story

terrabluhomecare — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:43:03 +0000

Just wanted to share with you something that happened last week. A client of ours is living in very basic circumstances, is losing her eyesight and is very anxious about the future. She has limited heating and no ability to have a bath. So one of my managers, Julia, off her own bat, agreed to take this lady for a bath. She went and picked her up, took her to the day centre where she cried as she got into a bath for the first time in a number of months. She washed her hair, and then arranged for a hairdresser to style her hair. She then ate for england ! A large plate of lamb casserole, followed by lemon and meringue pie before being dropped home ! The manager didn’t charge her for anything. Isn’t that a story to gladden one’s heart as we approach Christmas ? Thank you Julia.

A heartfelt response to the Human Rights Commission

terrabluhomecare — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:41:12 +0000

The Human Rights commission is in the news today reporting its findings on its year long commission into human rights failures in the homecare sector. This is part of its campaign to extend the remit of the various Human Rights Acts specifically to the social care sector, for some reason exempt when the acts were brought into UK law. The homecare sector is of course already subject to employment law and minimum wage in respect of Care workers, contract law laid down by the Local authorities for whom we deliver services, and the overarching Health and Social Care legislation brought in in 2000, which has grown from 78 pages of standards to now some 378 pages of Essential Outcomes. And over all this sits the Care Quality Commission, our 4th regulator in 10 years.

Most people dont want to pay for social care when they need it, but feel that it should be free at the point of use like the NHS. This means that 70+% of homecare in England is purchased by Local Authorities. Whilst the talk has often been of quality, the reality often is cost. In 10 years in the sector I have never had a conversation with a Local Authority commissioner about how we can improve a service overall, but we’ve had many about can we reduce the length of time we spend in a call, or why arent we following the detailed care plan tasks of abandC, or can we reduce the cost. If we want to have services that flexibly respond to clients preferences, the brutal truth is the length of time of calls needs to be similarly flexible, and commissioners need to trust companies to deliver for their clients. In an environment where Kent County Council have scrapped their enhanced rates for rural care , ie a price drop of 26%, where they need to save £94m over 4 years, where we are being pressured to move to 15 minute calls for older people, and where we are still delivering care at april 2009 prices of £12 per hour, a real drop of some 10.5% in the prices paid for our services - I see no sign of even a debate about investing in the quality of homecare.

So in the meantime we need to recruit, train and motivate staff with these price pressures. Homecare reflects current patterns in our society. Some clients we support with the most intimate personal care are charming, gracious and dignified, others to whom we have the same duty of care are not. Care workers that are an ideal personality fit with one client, are not with another. Our line managers manage these issues sensitively daily. Finding and retaining good care workers is about the selection and training process, and about managing performance. That is not easy today in a dispersed workforce with the cats cradle of employment law rights that have built up over the last 10 years. We spend some £8000 a year on employment law advice alone to make sure we manage to the law. Is that money well spent ? I guess it depends on your point of view.

The overarching regulator, CQC now responsible for everything from GPs practises to hospitals to homecare, in its wisdom scrapped the quality ratings that had been so painstakingly worked out by its predecessor. We were very proud of the rating of excellent we received in 2008. CQC was recently criticised by Parliament for dropping the ball on inspections in favour of focussing for some 18 months on the bureacracy of its reregistration process. It has now announced in a fanfare it is going to inspect Homecare, this is nothing new, its the CQCs job.

So in this landscape of declining spend for those needing an ever more flexible service, do we need another piece of legislation to achieve a better standard of care. I dont think so. What we need is the current regulations to be applied consistently by competent and responsible professionals and inspectors. Some people ask us , why do we continue in homecare with these pressures and constant bad publicity for the sector ? Its certainly not to get rich, I think its because day in day out we know we make a difference to peoples lives, and when we are out there on the road, the grandstanding and pointscoring by worthy social care and other professionals that comment on social care, but rarely deliver it, recedes into the background as noise and fury signifying nothing.

Join in our Client Forum !

terrabluhomecare — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:07:46 +0000

We held our client forum yesterday at the Camden Centre in Tunbridge Wells. It is something that we do twice a year and is a chance for us to have a chat about what we are up to, to get helpful ideas or suggestions from people or families that use our service, and we do really change stuff as a result of the forum !! We had 8 clients coming, which is a good number, but 5 cancelled on the day for a variety of reasons, so we were a very small but determined group that finally met in the afternoon. Thank you for making the effort to come. It is very much appreciated. To those of you that are not yet involved, please get in touch. Care is something we feel strongly about and hopefully you do too, in which case come along and get it off your chest !! Here is a photo of our small determined forum !!

Breaking free !

terrabluhomecare — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:31:47 +0000

Just been out for a walk from the office to get some fresh air. We are so lucky in Tunbridge Wells with some beautiful parks closeby. I took a stroll through Calverley Park, and though the colours are starting to fade, took a few of these shots. Hope you enjoy them ! As I wandered along I was mulling over how we could encourage our clients to get out more and enjoy these colours. Isolation is the thing that many people complain of when they feel stuck in their own home, waiting for the high point of the day – a visit from one of our support workers or a neighbour or relative. But trying to get people to break free of the cage they build for themselves in their mind is so difficult. We recently set up a volunteer befriending service – free for clients, where a volunteer would drop in for a coffee and a chat. But so many who suffer from isolation, have said – no its not convenient, or not today thank you. So we are closing it down. I was out on a care round on saturday and visited a lady who is living in a mobile home, desperately unhappy, on the site of her former home which burnt down uninsured six months ago. There is support available to rehome her in the warm on a temporary or permanent basis, particularly as winter approaches. But she won’t have any of it. Keeping an mind open to new things, and trying to see the positive whatever life throws at one – are so fundamental to breaking free of our self imposed cages !

Cream tea in the Pantiles

terrabluhomecare — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:12:24 +0000

What a lovely afternoon we had on Tuesday at the first autumn event of our Social Club. Emma had organised for us to go to Woods on the pantiles for a ‘full’ cream tea of sanwiches, scones, and the most delicious chocolate ginger cake. Clients that we support in their own home came on their own, or with family or friends. Many had brought daughters or nieces along, and one charming client brought along an old school pal as his guest that he hadn’t seen for some time. It was a delightful afternoon, and I hope the word starts to spread amongst our clients, who often wish to get out of their homes, but persuading them to do so is often another matter !!

Out and about on an autumn evening

terrabluhomecare — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:06:39 +0000

I was out last night on a round with two support workers. There was an autumn feel to the light as the sun set, but it was strangely warm. Just when we think summer has gone, the weather confuses us ! Visiting some clients that we have supported for a while, and some new ones too. I guess I had forgotten how important our personality is in this business of homecare. Both support workers were so cheerful and caring in their role. So determined to do their best whatever that was. Cooking a meal for one client sitting in his underpants in a hot flat saying he didnt want any food, but who then ate it heartily, whilst we cleared his fridge of food that had september use by dates ! or talking to a bedridden lady, about the wonder of her rose bushes that have been flowering since June. And ending up at the home of a lady with a twinkle in her eye and singing along to a nursery rhyme with her. Each one of them really gave of their personality to our clients, and I felt very lucky to be with them.

A day in the Life of a Homecare Support Worker !

terrabluhomecare — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:32:41 +0000

I’ve been in the caring profession for over twenty years and I often get asked why I love my job. It’s pretty simple really. I’m thanked at least five times a day, my arrival is greeted with a smile, I get to meet some lovely people – and I get paid to do it. As I said, pretty simple.

I always look forward to seeing Mary. She’s a really sweet lady in her 80’s who lives on her own. I visit her every day at 7am, helping her to get dressed, preparing breakfast and generally getting her ready for the day. She can’t do a lot any more but she has such a positive attitude to life and regularly makes me laugh with her stories. Only the other day she told me how she managed to scare both the gas engineer and the library lady.

“Imagine,” she said. “There I was, dozing in front of the fire when suddenly I heard a great commotion. I looked up and peering in through the window was a young man, knocking and shouting. Oh my, I thought, what does he want? I was a bit scared but I went to the window and he showed me his badge, shouting he was the gas engineer come to read the meter. So I opened the door and all he could say was ‘you’re ok, you’re ok’ over and over. Seems he couldn’t get an answer knocking on the door and when he looked through the window and saw me asleep in the chair he thought I was dead. Gave him the fright of his life! Never thought the day would come when I could scare a strapping young man!”

As I was chuckling away she continued, “And would you believe, that afternoon, exactly the same thing happened when the library lady came to visit.”

She stopped and looked at me with a smile: “I’ve clearly got playing dead off to a tee!”

You couldn’t make it up…