Haywards Heath residents to receive the very best of end of life care

Company news

Mar 22, 2012

The Gold Standard Framework Care Home Accreditation (GSFCH), approved by the NHS, Department of Health, Age UK and MacMillan Cancer Support, is designed to acknowledge the highest levels of end of life care and encourages choice and dignity for  residents as well as sensitive and effective support for relatives.

The GSFCH training programme is a three-stage quality assurance programme that includes training for all staff in the home and stringent monitoring, documentation and evaluation to ensure standards are kept at the very highest level. The home is then inspected to ensure all the techniques are fully embedded and that employees are consistently following the guidelines.

The home’s Clinical Lead, Emilio Estevez, and Registered Nurse Indu Paramasivan will soon begin the highly specialised training in pain management, end of life planning, medication, advanced nursing techniques and counselling which they will then share with their colleagues in the home.

Choice for residents is key to the programme and the Beech Hurst team will increasingly be able to make it possible for more residents to stay in the home until the end, rather than moving to hospital. Around 60 people live at Beech Hurst.

Scarlett MacDonald, who manages the home in Butlers Green Road, said: “The end of a person’s life is such a sensitive time for them and their relatives. So much of the anxiety can be removed by planning and building relationships with the people involved.  

“This is our residents’ home and many would like to stay here rather than move to hospital as their condition develops. Here, they know the surroundings, they are comfortable and with their friends. They and their relatives can then choose to have active medication or pain relief.

“With this accreditation we hope to continue to be able to offer people the dignity and choice they deserve.”

Another Care UK home, Forrester Court in Paddington, achieved the GSFCH accreditation earlier this year – see www.careuk.com/news_items/1159