Relationship Centred Care™
The foundation of any therapeutic care activity is to understand the person’s past and present relationships. By engaging with this most important aspect of the human experience, residents feel empowered to talk, to be heard and to feel valued.
With this in mind, Relationship Centred Care™ is our principle approach to care. Taking the established concept of person centred care one step further, we place each resident at the heart of a network of family, friends, health professionals, and those who deliver their care.
The Third Dimension
Relationship Centred Care can be illustrated by a “relationship triangle”, which highlights a “third dimension”: where carers, healthcare professionals and the resident’s loved ones develop relationships directly with each other, in addition to their traditional relationships with residents.
Our Initiatives…
Secure online access to care notes and care plans as they’re made
Our residents’ care plans and notes are streamed in real-time into our own platform (only with strict consent granted by the resident or a “best interest decision” on their behalf).
Relatives are finding that having a live view to their loved one’s care, accessible from anywhere, really helps them to have peace of mind, as well as to maintain stronger relationships with both the resident and staff.
You can read more about digitally transformed care here.
Life Stories
Each resident’s personal history is described in their Life Story; these empower our residents to talk about their most important memories, giving them a chance to reminisce and feel heard.
Using Life Stories, our Carers and Activities Workers are facilitated to understand the resident’s care needs from a wider, more relational perspective, and to deliver highly personalised group and one-to-one activities.
Histories are compiled collaboratively by Carers, Activities Workers, friends, families and the residents themselves. They include core memories, personal memorabilia, photographs and testimonials by significant people in the resident’s earlier life.
Family & Friends
When residents move into care, it is often difficult for relationships with their wider family and friends to be maintained. At Harpwood House, we keep families and friends involved in the social programme of the Home as far as possible. We emphasise details about the resident’s existing relationships and ways to facilitate these in our care planning.