Care homes

Winter infections have always been a problem for care homes and the residents that live in them. Those of us working in care of older people usually enter the festive season knowing that we’ll spend much of our time caring for care home residents affected by flu, pneumonia, and norovirus.

New research published in Age and Ageing has shown that comprehensive medicines reviews are associated with a lower risk of death for residents of care homes.

In this video blog, Mike Nicholson, an Edinburgh-based writer and social researcher, tells some of the real life stories of those living and working in care homes during the pandemic.

This is the seventh blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This is the third blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This is the second blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This year’s theme for the International Day of Older Persons is digital equity for all ages. This is timely given the acceleration of the use of digital communications and services during the pandemic and the risks that some people, particularly older people, could be left behind.

Although we’ve been in the grip of the pandemic for a little over a year now, in reality it feels more like a decade, with new restrictions, new lockdowns, and fortunately - thanks to vaccines and increased testing -, finally some new emerging hope that we may soon regain a semblance of normality.

Resy Manalo, Lalaine Lopez Pesario, Gilbert Barnedo, Elsie Sazuze, Suzanne Loverseed and Karen Hutton are some of the care home workers who lost their lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

Those of us working a lot with care homes have been involved in implementing the Enhanced Health in Care Homes Directed Enhanced Service (EHCH DES) that came into effect last year.

When my team received National Institute for Health Research funding for ‘Understanding stakeholders’ perspectives on implementing deprescribing in care homes’ (or STOPPING) study in 2019, we were looking forward to 2020.