Support for Families and Friends

A Social Worker with special experience in working with older people provides our Family and Carers Support Service. She offers support and counselling to all family members and friends of residents throughout their stay in Vale House and for an extended period (often a year, if wished) following the resident’s death. Through these links with relatives and friends the care staff gain a deeper understanding of each resident through the eyes of their family, and receive much helpful information about their previous life, interests and pursuits before the onset of their illness.

Vale House is very unusual in providing a dedicated post of this kind, despite the fact that the years of distress, anxiety and strained relationships experienced by many families are a well known part of the impact of dementia.

The support worker is available also to the staff, who often have to cope with difficult or sad situations, and her help underpins the mutual support normally given within the staff group.

Networks with Outside Sources of Expertise

The network of formal and informal links that Vale House has established with local specialist resources to support the complex needs of its residents was commended as exemplary in the 2008 report (‘Creative Partnerships’) of the National Council for Palliative Care.

Among these outside sources of consultation and help are speech and language therapists (for difficulties in swallowing), tissue viability nurses (preventing skin and pressure problems), the Orthopaedic Centre (for advice on spasticity, appropriate seating and wheelchairs), continence advisors, nutritional advice, and many others.

Medical care for the residents is provided through regular visits from a local general practitioner. Psychiatric advice and reviews of care are provided by the sector consultant psychiatrist from the local Department of Psychiatry of Old Age.

Little medication is normally needed for the residents, apart from that for diabetes or other pre-existing diseases, but for advice on the relief of pain or other symptoms towards the end of life, we can also call on help from the local hospice and district nurses.