For many individuals that are moving into a care home, this can be an unsettling time in which feelings of uncertainty and uneasiness can take control. Leaving behind the memories and familiar surroundings that a home offers can be upsetting, and this is often reflected in the thoughts and feelings of those that are moving into a care home.

There are a number of ways you can support your loved one moving into a care home; and this can make all the difference in improving positive mindsets, attitudes and settling into their new surroundings of moving into a care home.

How can you support a loved one in care?

If you’re looking at how you can support a loved one in care, here are a number of tips that can help you make life in a care home much easier for those who are close to you.

Support through the move

Staying by the side of your loved one throughout the process is the perfect way to show support. This includes choosing the right home with experienced team members, comfortable features, and a great and active way of life.

Additionally, once the perfect care home has been chosen, you should always support them with the minor details that are required to begin the road to heartfelt care. Whether that be transportation, signing documents, or even ensuring that all the items you will ever need are neatly packed away ready for the latest chapter.

Take home comforts

Taking home comforts with you into a care home is the perfect way to bring a little glimpse of home with you on your latest journey of life. This could be meaningful items that mean a lot to the individual, photographs, ornaments or even a favourite blanket from the sofa at home.

If you or a loved one are currently preparing for a move into a care home, ensuring you take a few favourite personal items can make all the difference in making your new environment feel like home.

For those that are looking how you can help someone that is currently living in a care home, taking something into surprise your friend, family or loved one can help make their day; potentially for many days to come.

Stay regularly connected

To improve the mindset of someone that is moving into, or currently living in care, you should aim to stay connected with them as much as possible for a good old catchup.

There’s arguably nothing more that a resident loves than a warm and friendly visit from friends and family to see how they’re doing, what they’ve been up to and to share any news from home.

However, supporting a loved one in care can be achieved through other methods, such as; regular contact via telephone, video chats on modern technology, or even by writing letters. This can make all the difference for someone that is living in care.

Keep all relatives involved

Encouraging those around you to also stay in regular contact can help your loved one that is currently living in a care home feel loved and cared for. This could be through visiting the home, attending relatives and residents meetings, coming to see residents of the home on celebratory occasions.

Alternatively, if this isn’t possible due to physical boundaries or busy timescales, a simple phone call, FaceTime, or Zoom catchup can be arranged to ensure that your loved one remains supported by familiar faces during the time within the home.

Communicate with staff

If you think that your loved one could do with some extra love, attention and affection, then letting team members within the home know your concerns can help them identify any concerns. From there, they can do their best to try and improve morale with your loved one.

Tell members of the team what you like to do, how you want to do it and the best time for you. If you want breakfast in bed for your loved one on a weekend, we can do it. If they have a favourite film they would like to watch, tell us. Whatever you need, we can help provide it.

Oakland Care understands just how big of an impact team members play within the overall environment of the home, and we consistently strive to do our very best. We ensure every resident receives a high degree of one-to-one contact to develop compassionate bonds with our friendly team; that makes all the difference for life in our homes.

Meet new friends!

All residents of a care home, whether old or new, should make the most of their opportunity to meet new friends! Even the shy ones amongst us are sure to meet new people that they will love.

There are endless interesting characters that live and work in Oakland Care homes that provide the perfect environment to make new friends. Additionally, when the threat of the current pandemic reduces, there are also a vast array of people that safely come and go from the care home, whether that be activity and events providers, family members and friends of other residents, and many others that find themselves in one of our lovely homes.

Get to know the care home

Getting to know the care home is a great way to help your loved one feel more relaxed and welcome in their new settings. By reducing the feeling of uncertainty with their surroundings, this can help your loved one embrace the transition to their new home. 

When it comes to supporting a loved one in care, taking the time to ensure they know where everything is, where they can get whatever they need and where they will love to spend their time is a great place to start. 

This can build the level of excitement for attending the comfortable cinema rooms, relaxing landscaped gardens, bars & bistros, and even hair and beauty salons! 

Encourage participation in events and activities

Supporting a love one in care is the most important thing you can do during their time within a residential home. What better way to boost morale than by participating in the things you love?

At Oakland Care, we look to give a new lease of life to all of our residents through the events and activities we put on within each of our homes. Our dedicated lifestyle teams provide a range of fun-filled activities for residents such as:

• Arts and crafts
• Life drawing
• Gardening club
• Film club
• Cake decorating
• Knitting
• Much more!

We healthily promote individuality and enjoyment through our various lifestyle pursuits; and we want everyone to be involved!

Oakland Care: Our care homes that care

At Oakland Care, we understand that every single action we make can dictate the overall satisfaction of life in our homes. That’s why we do our very best to ensure every current resident is looked after to the very highest care standards; emotionally, physically and spiritually.

For those that are moving in with us, Oakland Care ensure we do our very best to make the transition into our care homes the very smoothest it can be; ensuring that all our new residents are confident and optimistic about their new life that lies ahead.

If you have any questions surrounding life in an Oakland Care home, or you would like to enquire about a potential visit; contact a friendly member of our team today. We will be happy to assist you with any questions or queries you may have.