DANIEL CARMEL-BROWN • CHIEF EXECUTIVE • JEWISH CARE

and tailor activities depending on their interests. Our Living Well Teams and volunteers deliver a varied and vibrant activity programme, and we bring in experienced participatory art practitioners to deliver cultural and therapeutic activities on a one-to-one or group level.

Promoting independence, good communication and providing the highest quality of care are key for Jewish Care in ensuring that residents in our care homes and tenants in our Retirement Living and Assisted Living apartments are treated with dignity and respect, says Daniel Carmel-Brown, Chief Executive of Jewish Care.

At Jewish Care, we aim to share information about all aspects of living in a care home and to be as transparent as possible as to what people can expect when they move into a Jewish Care setting. We know that, for many people, moving into a care home can be their first contact with social care and it can feel like a daunting and emotional journey.

Supporting residents and their families with this process helps to ensure that they feel their preferences and choices are being respected. Our professional and caring teams are here to support this transition by providing reassurance, guidance and answering their questions. Our website enables people to take virtual tours of our care homes and some of our Retirement Living apartments.

Our dedicated care home assessor or a member of our care team assesses each person’s care needs to ensure we can best support them. Members of our Family Carers Team are also there for relatives, who as carers, often benefit from additional support at this time.

We work with each person and their family, supporting them to express their needs, which helps to promote independence. Where possible, we try to establish as many details as possible, such as where they really want to live, when they like to get up and go to bed, what food they enjoy, whether there are aspects of Jewish life and traditions that are important to them and what makes them feel at home and settled.

This all helps us to support their personal identity and provide high-quality, person-centred care. When someone is ready to move into a care home, their personal care plan also includes advanced care planning so that, should their health change, they have recorded their decisions and choices in advance and their wishes can be fulfilled. Every new resident will meet their assigned key worker, care manager and the team involved in their care to help them settle in and will have all the information they need to prepare them to adjust to life in their new home.

We encourage residents and their families to bring in personal items to make their new space familiar to them. We welcome regular visits from family, friends and even much-loved pets to add to the homely atmosphere and sense of warmth in our homes.

We do all we can to ensure the care home feels like a person’s home and we are proud that our hospitality team are trained through Jewish Care’s unique and accredited Housekeeping and Chef Academies to understand how to fulfil their hospitality roles with care when they are working in their home.

Our professional, dedicated care teams also focus on communication and understanding the lives that our residents lived before they came into care, so that we can continue to meet their needs

Daniel Carmel-Brown is Chief Executive of Jewish Care. Email: helpine@jcare.org Twitter: @jewish_care

How do you ensure that residents are treated with dignity and respect? Share your feedback on the article. Visit www.caremanagementmatters.co.uk

Residents’ families are part of the team, ensuring their relative is receiving meaningful care, and we encourage their feedback. Regular meetings and care reviews give relatives and families the opportunity to ask questions, hear about what’s going on in the organisation and forge strong working relationships with our care professionals.

Celebrating important personal milestones like birthdays and anniversaries and marking public holidays together all helps to build a sense of belonging at Jewish Care, supporting residents to express their personal identity.

We proudly celebrate our Jewish values and, as a culturally sensitive service, it is important to many of our residents and tenants that we offer a variety of religious and cultural activities to those we care for. We deliver Jewish Way of Life training to our staff so they can support residents to connect to Jewish life in the way that they choose. Our volunteers also play a key role in supporting residents to celebrate Jewish life and enjoy traditions and customs that often stimulate the senses, which can be especially important for people who are living with dementia to connect the past and present with positive memories.

All of this helps to create not just a home, but also a community to be part of. A place where people can express themselves, live life with dignity and share a sense of pride as part of a caring community.