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(Alison Comely) Thank you for taking part in this important consultation about the future
of residential care services in the city.
We need to change our approach to these services and have a responsibility to make the right
choice for the future. We need your help to achieve those goals.
Behind the options for the future that you will be discussing are very significant challenges.
Voiceover
Bristol will see an increase in the number of older people in the future and they will
want to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible. There will be more demand
for flexible and individual support to achieve this.
We’ve been developing these types of services and have concentrated on helping people earlier
or supporting them to return home after a hospital stay or other crisis.
People’s requirements and expectations for care are also rising. Where residential care
is needed in the future it will have to be of a high quality and standard.
We will also see a rise in the number of people with dementia in the future. We have to ensure
that we have enough specialist services to meet the needs of people with dementia both
the community and in residential care.
In the past, compared to other councils, we have relied too much on admitting people into
care homes. Recently we have seen a reduction in the number of people living in care homes.
It’s a trend that is set to continue. This is partly about people making different choices
for the future and also the availability of different support and options.
A final challenge is to understand that our future choices and planning for care services
in the city will take place during a time of tight and limited public spending.
(Shirley Hobbs) I’m Shirley Hobbs and I work for the Short Term Assessment and Rehabilitation
service at Bristol City Council.
Yes I have seen an increase in the number of people with dementia that we’re to keep
in their own homes.
We can Help them to regain their confidence start of with small things first like making
cups of tea gradually progress from there helping them with personal care as they sometimes
forget what they have to do.
(Lorraine Knight) My name is Lorraine Knight and I am Centre Manager at Westleigh Resource
Centre
Our aim is to assist and support people coming out of hospital to go home with regained daily
living skills and confidence.
We also support people from the community who sometimes need just a little bit of help
to regain again their daily living skills and to be confident about living independently.
Currently centre is staffed 24 hours a day.
The maximum stay at the centre is six weeks. That occasionally slips if people need a bit
extra maybe for week. Some people go after two or three weeks if they’ve met their
goals and feel confident and that’s the right time for them to leave.
Majority of people who leave here go home. Occasionally that is not possible and some
people go into residential care, but it is the minority.
The trouble with a long stay in hospital is that you live within the confines of the bed
space especially as I couldn’t walk and was sat in a chair. But when you come to a
place like this acclimatised to moving about with a degree of freedom and b mixing with
people again. This place re-acclimatises you to real life, I think.
Westleigh Resource Centre – past user
While I was in Frenchay Hospital a person from social services came and explain and
said I should spend some time in a care home. I didn’t like the idea of a care home the
way it was put and, you know, I asked if there was anything different and they got back to
me a couple of days afterwards and they had secured a place at a resource centre.
They help getting mobile. They help with the washing, showering the bathing. And when I
was able to get around a bit they allowed you to go into the kitchen to make your own
cup of tea.
But the staff was amazing and I mean from everyone down.
I could help myself more because of the facilities there.
(Wendy Freeman)
My name is Wendy Freeman and I’m the estate manager of this scheme. It’s an extra care
scheme. It’s run by Hanover Housing Association and we’re actually based in Horfield not
far from Southmead Hospital.
Well as an extra care scheme it is independent living and we 48 self-contained flats here
- 15 two beds and all the rest are one bed. People can have their own flats and come and
go as they want and they live completely independently. Extra Care Housing resident
What this place is now is because if something happened there is always someone here. Whereas
when I was in my flat I had nobody you see. Extra Care Housing resident
Most people that come to visit me say how lovely it is.
(Alison Comely) Thank you again for taking part in this consultation. You will now have
an opportunity to hear in more detail about the options being put forward and have an
opportunity to ask questions and make comments.
I do encourage you to have your say.
We will be bringing together feedback from these meetings with our wider consultation
into a single report that will go to Cabinet in July. At that meeting councillors will
make a final decision about the future of services.