Improving Health in Care Homes

Programme Brief

In the UK, 405,000 older people (aged 65+) currently live in care homes. This represents 16% of older people over the age of 85 (BGS 2020). Within Wessex, there are around 23,500 care home beds (CQC 2020).Older people living in care homes are likely to have complex and multiple long term conditions requiring ongoing health and social care support. With the onset of...

In the UK, 405,000 older people (aged 65+) currently live in care homes. This represents 16% of older people over the age of 85 (BGS 2020). Within Wessex, there are around 23,500 care home beds (CQC 2020).

Older people living in care homes are likely to have complex and multiple long term conditions requiring ongoing health and social care support. With the onset of Covid-19, care homes have rapidly adopted innovative approaches, transforming not only how they provide care during crisis but also how they liaise with other care providers to keep residents safe.

Wessex AHSN is working across a number of our programmes to help improve the health of care home residents. Most of our work is a result of commitment over a number of years of responding to the needs of these settings, and some of this work was accelerated as part of the national Covid-19 response.

We engage with our members and care homes to understand the issues and to jointly plan how best to address them. We are presently developing a strategy to ensure that we are responsive to system needs.

We are sensitive to the pressures and priorities faced by care homes, and therefore collaborate across our programmes to ensure that we co-ordinate our activities.

This webpage brings together both national and local resources developed by a number of programmes within Wessex AHSN to enable care home managers to find out more about our innovative workstreams, best practice approaches and support, as well the latest developments in national guidance to ensure the health and wellbeing of their residents and staff.

Additional resources

British Geriatrics Society: Covid-19: Managing the Covid-19 pandemic in care homes for older people

Government Guidance: Coronavirus (Covid-19): care home support package

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Improving health in care homes: the Wessex AHSN offer

Wessex AHSN is working across a number of our programmes to help improve the health of care home ... Find out more >

RESTORE2

RESTORE2 (Soft Signs, NEWS2 and SBAR/D)RESTORE2 is a physical deterioration and escalation tool f... Find out more >

PINCER

PINCER is the Pharmacist-led Information technology iNtervention for the reduction of Clinically ... Find out more >

Transfers of Care Around Medicines - now the NHS Discharge Medicines Service

Transfer of Care Around Medicines (TCAM) – ensuring support with medicines for patients leaving h... Find out more >

Care Home Training Resources

Please note, this programme of work has been completed and is no longer being updated. The below ... Find out more >

Optimising Anticoagulation in Atrial Fibrillation

Since 2014 we have been working across Wessex to improve detection and management of patients wit... Find out more >

Domiciliary Care

Please note, this programme of work has been completed and is no longer being updated. The below ... Find out more >

Enhanced Health in Care Homes

Please note, this programme of work has been completed and is no longer being updated. The below ... Find out more >

Hydration at Home

Dehydration is a concern in older people due to the potential adverse effects on function and cli... Find out more >

Identifying early signs of worsening health in a person with a learning disability

Please note, this programme of work has been completed and is no longer being updated. The below ... Find out more >

Safety Communications (including SBARD)

Please note, this programme of work has been completed and is no longer being updated. The below ... Find out more >

Hydration at Home Toolkit

Wessex AHSN has worked in collaboration with Hampshire County Council to produce the Hydration at... Find out more >

Using Soft Signs to Identify early indications of Physical Deterioration

Please note, this programme of work has been completed and is no longer being updated. The below ... Find out more >

Nutrition in Older People

Undernutrition is a form of ‘malnutrition’, which simply means ‘poor nutrition’. It affects 10-15... Find out more >

Telemedicine in Care Homes

What is the telemedicine in care homes project?The telemedicine service for care homes offers an ... Find out more >

Meet the team

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Latest news

Resources to support care homes and their staff effectively deal with deterioration among patients and residents

The COVID-19 pandemic raises challenges for care home residents, their families and the staf...

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Featured video

Hydration at Home Toolkit Promo Video

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Resources

Care Home Resources

Care Home worker resources - Skills for Health and Health Innovation Network

The framework for enhanced health in care homes - NHS England

Improving safety in care homes - AHSN Network

Medicine Safety in Care Homes National Report - NHS Improvement

Health Innovation Network: Co-ordinate my care project report

Health Innovation Network: Co-ordinate my care implementation guide

Hampshire and Isle of Wight digital social care technology

Publications

Wessex AHSN Covid-19 response July 2020

Wessex AHSN Business Plan 2023-24

Learning from staff reflections: Supporting people at end of life

Featured project

Improving health in care homes: the Wessex AHSN offer

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