Many residents in care homes for older people suffer loneliness and social isolation. Research shows that this increases when they leave their homes and communities to go into residential care.
Our objective is to improve the well-being, social interaction, health, enjoyment of life of residents in care homes for older people and reduce their social isolation. Our project will also enable care homes to be more firmly connected to their local communities and give them the opportunity to showcase the care and compassion they give their residents. We hope we will also help to overcome the sometimes negative public perception of care homes.
Our purpose is to recruit, train and support volunteers in care homes. We believe there is a huge untapped potential for volunteers to enhance the lives of residents in care homes. Equally we believe that there are many people who would like to volunteer their services in this way.
Volunteers are rarely used in care homes, and where they are, their contribution is often not sustained. Our research has hown that this is because of:
The issue we are addressing:
Care Home Volunteers addresses the social ill of loneliness and isolation of residents in care homes for older people. CHV recruits, trains and supports volunteers to help overcome this loneliness and isolation - primarily by face-to-face and one-to-one befriending visits.
Unlike in hospitals and hospices, there is no widespread use of volunteers in care homes. Where they exist, their role usually does not include one-to-one befriending for the most lonely of residents. There are only a very few organisations nationally offering the same service as ours, and they are mainly very small scale and local. We have recently made contact with them, and found there is a strong desire to share and work together.
Our beneficiaries:
A resident in a care home may have suffered the loss of a partner and will have lost their home, social network and possessions; they will be suffering from physical impairment, dementia or other sensory or mental disabilities that make social interaction and involvement in organised activities difficult. 40% of older people in care suffer from depression, two-thirds from dementia, 40,000 residents nationally have no outside visitors. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, for a resident with dementia, social contact with others, outside care tasks, is only two minutes in six hours. Research shows that loneliness increases on entering residential care. The median length of stay in a care home is only about 15 months, so these vulnerable people have no opportunity, capacity or, indeed, time left to overcome their loneliness and turn their lives around by themselves.1
The work we do:
Our volunteers befriend residents on a one-to-one basis, particularly those residents who have no visitors, those who are unable to socialise, or who tend to remain in their rooms because of their physical or cognitive conditions. We have research evidence to show that our approach is the most effective way to address and
1 All references to studies and other evidence are available.
mitigate the damaging effects of loneliness for these sick, vulnerable and elderly people.
Pre-pandemic we made nearly 2,500 befriending visits per year to residents across Wiltshire and Swindon. Since the start of the pandemic, the need for our services has been brought sharply into public focus We have increased our services, volunteer numbers and range of activities during this time.
From the outset, we have planned to reach a national coverage to address this national problem. We have built our current capacity over a few short years, starting with a well-researched small pilot in 2014, developing a transferable and scalable model, evaluating our growth in different demographics and with all types of care home and local authority partners. We have consulted and had the support of all the relevant stakeholders, local and national bodies, including visits to DHSC, have had mentions in parliament as an example of good volunteering practice, and the encouragement of some care home umbrella groups.
How we know our approach works:
We have a large body of evidence including from The Campaign to End Loneliness, The Alzheimer’s Society, The King’s Fund, a 3-year NCVO study on Volunteering in Care Homes (we attended and participated in all their meetings), a Bristol University study of Volunteers in Care Settings (we were on the Advisory Group), The Relatives and Residents Association (their Chair was our guest speaker at our last AGM), The Royal College of Psychology, Ageing Health. We visited the HQ of The Samaritans (their service is a close analogy to ours) to understand their national structure and quality control.
It is difficult to sum up this wide body of evidence in terms of impact of our work, but as an example, a large-scale 2018 trial led by the University of Exeter, King’s College London and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust found that “. . dementia care is improved by just one hour of social interaction each week, reduces intervention by care staff – and saves money”. The activities they describe are consistent with our work.
We also have a large collection of evidence from our volunteers, care homes and residents that demonstrates our service improves the welfare, happiness and health of older people in care.
Our organisation:
The operational side of our work is carried out by four Volunteer Coordinators, engaged on self-employed basis. This contractor status will enable us to extend our work into new areas, possibly on a ‘franchise’ basis. Each of these is a senior professional, two being ex-CEOs of significant charities. They are highly respected by care homes, our local authorities, and the local communities in which they work.
In September 2021, we appointed our first CEO. One of her main priorities will be in implementing our growth strategy.
We have a number of other advisors and professionals, some paid and some pro- bono, working with us.
Our trustee board currently comprises of nine members including the recently-retired Wiltshire Head of Commissioning, the Head of Adult Safeguarding in Wiltshire and
the Chair of Wiltshire Healthwatch. We also have an owner/manager of a (twice) outstanding Wiltshire care home. Our treasurer is a KPMG professional. Another trustee has worked and volunteered in many local and national charities, as manager, director, trustee or consultant. She is currently a consultant for The Cranfield Trust. We have a funding manager from Guide Dogs and marketing professional from a large insurance company. Our Chair, Norman Edwards, is a founding member. We have a vacancy for a Board Secretary and for a Legal/HR Board member.
We are proud of the appropriate range of skills and experience of our operational staff and of our trustees. Although we are currently working across only three Local Authority areas, we know that we are national leaders in this field.
Preparation for scaling up of our work
We wish to grow our service nationwide because we know the need is everywhere, in all care homes irrespective of ownership model or CQC grade, and under all Local Authority administrations.
We have appointed a Volunteer Coordinator to work in the adjacent local authority area of Bath & NE Somerset who will took up her post in January 2022. This will complete the unit which is the partnership of B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) Integrated Care System. This combined unit of BSW, a mixed demography with a population of a little under a million, and a care home population of 5,500, will be our replicable and scalable model for transferring to new outposts. This coincides well with the proposals in the White Paper for 42 Integrated Care Systems throughout England, of which BSW is one.
We have development plan for the scaling up of our work. Care Home Volunteers exists in a landscape of a number of partners, stakeholders and supporters (see diagram on next page), and we are hoping to draw on most of these to support the growth of our work.
