Cookery classes for care workers: 'We don't want elderly eating jam sandwiches'

Care workers at Unique Homecare Services have been given cooking lessons ensuring the people they care for eat nutritious food, rather than "ready meals or jam sandwiches".

The care provider which provides care in Lancashire, Cumbria and North Yorkshire offers an innovative approach to caring for people with dementia which focusses on personalized care, good diet and exercise.

Michelle Thompson, managing director of Unique Homecare Services Ltd says: “We give our staff cooking classes as we don’t want the clients getting ready-made meals or a jam sandwich.”

Food is integrated into its whole approach with care staff taking people shopping to buy the ingredients for a meal. When they return home, they prepare the meal together and then sit down and eat it down together.

"Sitting down and eating is a very social thing and people will eat much more if they are eating with someone rather than on their own," according to Ms Thompson.

She set up the agency in 2016 and she now has 72 staff and 107 clients. “There has been a natural growth in the business. We started off in Lancaster, then moved to Cumbria and now North Yorkshire. We have a mixture of self-paying and local authority funded clients. We do pay the staff more than the rate that the local authority pays so it can be problematic.

“For personal care, we don’t do visits of less than an hour as we want to make someone’s life feel more important and promote their independence. But if it is giving someone their medication for example, we will go in for a shorter time,” she says.

Ms Thompson started off working as a mental health nurse, then realized she would enjoy working in the care sector more.

“I have worked in different roles in care and was a senior care manager for Abbeyfield for four years.

“Then in 2016 I decided to open my own home care company. It has been amazing to have the opportunity to make what you believe in actually happen.”

Live-in care growing in popularity

Unique Homecare also provides live in care which Ms Thompson has found to be “increasingly popular”.

She says: “Some of it tends to be respite care for someone we are already caring for. I think people are taking more control over what they want to happen to them in their lives. My first words to a client when I first meet them is ‘how do you want to live the rest of your life’.

“Good home care is spending time with people and building up relationships. It is also about having the right team on board and making them feel part of what we do. We are always looking at how we can make it a better experience for the client.”

Personalised care hugely important to Unique Homecare

Home care worker, Chris Round, cares for John Sowden who has Alzheimer’s and he has been instrumental in reuniting John with his former passion for fishing.

Chris Round says: “John and I go fishing on a regular basis and have even managed to link in with a professional fisher who comes with us. John used to fish many years ago and still had all his rods in the garage. I asked John if he would like to go and he jumped at the chance.

“The interaction we have when fishing is great. John chats to me and we have built up a great relationship. John also goes home to his wife much more relaxed and settled after the fishing which benefits not only John, but his wife, as John can often become agitated and frustrated in the evening. We take down some sandwiches and a flask and have a couple of hours there.

“Care is much more than helping someone get up, it’s about the impact you can make on someone’s life for the better. We are now looking at setting up a fishing group in the Spring with people from our local memory café as it has had such a positive impact on John and his wife.”

Therapy dog

The home care agency even has its own therapy dog who goes and visits people in their own homes. Rosie is a border collie and is a certified PAT (Pets as Therapy) dog. Julie Wilkinson who owns Rosie says: “Rosie is a certified PAT dog so she has been trained and is insured to go into people’s homes. The benefits to clients are huge. One lady I visit called Gill often spoke about missing her dog and not being able to have another one now due to her mobility so this way she still benefits from the therapeutic impact from Rosie.”

Unique Homecare founder, Ms Thompson also gets involved on a caring level. She recently went to visit Alice Cornthwaite who had not been out the house in a long time and was feeling low.

“I suggested to cheer Alice up, we went out for some lunch which we did and had a great day. Unique is about wellbeing encompassing diet, stimulation and exercise into our model of care so what better way to do this then go out for something to eat, chat, reminisce and have a walk which we did as well as plenty of laughs. The long-term benefit to Alice is that she felt more confident in herself, it really lifted her spirits which was what it’s all about, enhancing life.”

Caring for the staff’s wellbeing is also crucial. This is why care workers at Unique Homecare have done a mindfulness course and this has had a huge impact, according to Ms Thompson.

“It teaches them not to take their work home with them. They have also had dementia training and so they understand why people with dementia get agitated and frustrated. We also work with the family to support them in reducing any feelings of frustration.

“It is all about living in their reality. If it is real to them, it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. If they feel they are 21 and they think their mum and dad are still alive, it is the staff who need their mindset changed not the client.”

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