Lasting Power of Attorney | Atkinsons Homes

Lasting Power of Attorney

At Atkinsons Homes, we will help you guide through all the information.

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document which allows individuals to give people they trust the authority to manage their affairs if they lack the capacity to make certain decisions for themselves in the future.

To set up an LPA a person must be 18 or over and have the mental capacity to decide to do so. The person chosen to make decisions on behalf of the donor is known as the attorney. The attorney must be over 18 and must themselves have the mental capacity to act as an attorney. For property and financial affairs LPA’s, the attorney must not be bankrupt.

There are two types of LPA;

  • Health and Welfare
  • Property and financial affairs

Health and Welfare LPA

This LPA gives the attorney the power to make decisions about the donors health and care. It covers day-to-day decisions like food and drink, clothing and activities, and bigger decisions such as where to live, and whether to receive medical treatment. It can only be used when the donor has lost the mental capacity to make the relevant decision for themselves.

Property and Finance LPA

This gives an attorney the authority to make decisions about the donor’s property and money. Again, this can be day-to-day decisions, such as paying a bill, or more complex financial decisions, such as selling the donor’s property or shares. A donor can choose for it to be used when the individual lacks the capacity to make the relevant financial decision for themselves, or when LPA becomes officially registered. 

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. More Advice & Information is available. Give us a call at our Head Office on 01276 31838.

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5 Ways to Re-use Jam Jars | Care Home Sandhurst

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At Atkinson’s Private Care & Nursing Homes, Sandhurst, we are always looking for crafty ideas to make with our residents.

Angela, our activities co-ordinator at Fourways, will be recycling and reusing jam jars with the residents as a part of their weekly activities.

Here are her five ideas to get you crafty;

  1. Pincushion and Sewing Kits – You can keep all your sewing bits together in a jar and you can even make the lid into a pin cushion
  2. Memory Jars To keep all little mementoes like shells, dried flowers or small souvenirs, you can make a different memory jar for each trip, you can label the front with the dates you went.
  3. Inspiration Jars – Write some of your favourite quotes, poems and pieces of advice down on separate scraps of paper and fill a jar with them. Whenever you feel in need of a boost, take one out a read it.
  4. Jewellery Storage Jars If you’re always misplacing your jewellery, you can keep it all together in one place.
  5. Grow your own herbs – Even if you don’t have a garden, you can get in on the grow-your-own craze by putting a thin layer of gravel in an empty jam jar, half-filling with soil and planting your favourite herb seeds, you can put on your kitchen window-sill, your own herb garden.

Get involved

Have you come across some some other uses? Comment below!

Dementia | Making life easier

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Making Life easier with Dementia

Having dementia doesn’t mean you need to stop doing the things you enjoy, but it can make things more difficult.

The following tips might help:

  • Put a regular routine in place – you might find it easier and more reassuring to do things at the same time each day or week. If you find you feel better at certain times of the day try to arrange activities for this part of the day.
  • Keep things straightforward – simplify your routine or daily tasks to make them more manageable.
  • Take things one step at a time – try to focus on one thing at a time and break each task down into smaller steps.
  • Put out the things you need before starting an activity so that you have a visual prompt – for example, tools for gardening or ingredients for cooking.
  • Try to reduce any distractions – for example, background noise if you are trying to read.

For any more advice in living with Dementia, or you may be interested in our short-term Dementia breaks in our Care or Nursing homes, please call any of our homes individually or Head Office

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. If you have any question regarding the above info, or anything else don’t hesitate to contact us.

Contact us

Supporting Arthritis | Health Under The Spotlight

Supporting Arthritis

Arthritis is inflammation of the joints. Symptoms of arthritis are primarily joint pain and stiffness. These symptoms usually progress with age. Two of the most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is characterised by the breakdown and degeneration of joint cartilage. It is the result of the ageing process and trauma to the joint from normal wear and tear.

On physical exam, the joints are tender and inflamed. There is often joint enlargement, pain with weight-bearing and decreased range of motion. Surgery and medication may relieve pain and restore function.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder. RA is a chronic systemic disease that is characterised by inflammation and stiffness in the joints but may also affect major organs within the body especially the heart and lungs.

Psoriatic arthritis

Psoriatic arthritis shares many features with rheumatoid arthritis and carries a similar risk.

Sjogren’s disease refers to symptoms of dryness in the eyes and mouth and is often seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Supporting Arthritis

Atkinson’s Care & Nursing Homes, understand how arthritis can affect a person’s day to day living. Supporting Arthritis:

  • To maintain a person’s independence, our care team with ensuring we support assistance in transfers and moving.
  • All our staff are trained in moving and handling techniques and to use adaption aids which promote empowerment for the person to continue walking and moving around.
  • It is important that they get plenty of rest, and their bodies are comforted.
  • All of our Care and Nursing homes have profile beds. They are controlled by a remote to ensure maximum comfort.
  • We have 24/7 call bells for care staff to assist with any care and support needs.
  • Maintaining a healthy and nutritious daily eating plan is vital to improving the movements of joints. Atkinson’s homes offer a wide range of dietary requirements and are chefs who have a full understanding of providing nutritious daily eating plans, we use fresh local produce.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. If you have any questions on the above or would like to enquire about our respite/full-time care options contact us below!

Contact us

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Mouth Care | Health Under The Spotlight

Helping Residents to Maintain Good Mouth Care

A focus on mouth care is a necessity of meeting fundamental care needs. It’s important to gain an insight into the oral health of the resident on admission to our homes.

An assessment of the health status of the mouth, lips, natural teeth and/or dentures will help establish the type of oral health support required, and ensure that this care is planned for:

  • Practice good oral hygiene. Brush teeth thoroughly twice a day and floss daily between the teeth to remove dental plaque.
  • Visit your dentist at least once a year, even if you have no natural. teeth or dentures.
  • If you have diabetes, work to maintain control of the disease. This will decrease the risk for other complications, including gum disease. Treating gum disease will help lower your blood sugar levels.
  • If your medication causes dry mouth, ask you, doctor, for a different medication that may not cause this side effect.
  • See your doctor or a dentist if you have sudden changes in taste or smell.

Get in touch

Our Care and Nursing home Managers complete a full in-depth assessment of all care and support needs including vital oral care, for a complimentary assessment or for more advice, please call any of our individual homes or head office.

Useful Links on mouth care:

Hypertension | Health Under The Spotlight

Health under the Spotlight Series: Hypertension

Another blog in our ‘Health Under The Spotlight’ Series. In this series, we’ll be dissecting some special conditions and explaining how, as a care provider, we would help to support our residents. This week, we’ll be dissecting Hypertension.

What is hypertension

Our blood pressure increases naturally as we grow older. Many cases of hypertension in elderly people can not be traced to one specific cause.

Though, in certain elderly people, it is caused by medication or some other medical issue. Generally, hypertension (also known as high blood pressure) can lead to several health issues. For this reason, it is also referred to as ‘the silent killer’. It can, for example, increase their risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack and the chances of developing kidney problems increases.

How we we check blood pressure in our Residents

We keep a recorded log of any changes noticed for our residents. Part of this process is the regular monitoring of blood pressure. As it is normal for blood pressure to rise and fall throughout the day, we will carry out checks a couple of times on different days. Hypertension in elderly people can only be diagnosed when repeated readings are high.

How we support you

When high blood pressure is detected, in any of our residents, we will inform your/our local GP. We’ll then continue to work in partnership with them to try and make changes to your lifestyle.

For starters, we can try to improve dietary intake by ensuring that we find alternatives for your favourite food. For example, if a person likes many puddings, we can ask our chef to make sugar-free puddings. If a person likes high salted food we can adapt portion sizes to limit the salt intake. We will discuss this of course first with you and family members.

We will design a tailored care plan around your blood pressure and put in targets for us to improve your hypertension.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. For a complimentary pre-assessment for care, medical and support needs – please call our Care and Nursing homes individually or contact head office directly for more information.

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We think you’ll like this: “Kindness in Sandhurst – Start Small“

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Types of Dementia | Health Under The Spotlight

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Types of Dementia

There are many different types of dementia. It is not always clear why some people get dementia while others don’t, it depends on a combination of genes, age, health and lifestyle.

Vascular Dementia

There are several types of Vascular dementia. One type is caused by a stroke (called stroke-related dementia) another is caused by the poor blood supply to parts of the brain (called subcortical vascular dementia)

The word ‘Vascular” relates to blood vessels and is the result of problems with blood supply to the brain. Nerve cells need oxygen and nutrients from the blood to survive. Vascular dementia sometimes follows a large stroke (called post-stroke dementia) more often though it comes after a number of small strokes (called multi-infarct dementia)

Early Changes

Common early changes include difficulty planning, thinking quickly or concentrating. There may also be a sense of heightening anxiety, which can also be feelings of depression. Memory loss isn’t always common in the early stages.

Dementia with Lewy bodies

Lewy bodies are also found in people with Parkinson’s disease, which is called “ Parkinson’s disease dementia. Similar to the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease, they disrupt the way the brain functions, they reduce the levels of chemical messenger’s and cause nerve cells to die. This form of dementia gets its name from tiny clumps of protein that develop inside nerve cells, called LB.

Get in touch

Please phone individual homes for more information or contact head office.

Tel: 01252 871751
Email: Vlad@atkinsonshomes.com

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Maintaining Dignity In Care | Atkinsons Homes

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The Importance of Maintaining Dignity In Care

At Atkinson’s Care and Nursing homes, we understand that Dignity for our residents is paramount.

All of our Care and Nursing teams have been professionally trained in Dignity and Respect for quality person-centred caregiving. We assess each resident individually to establish their own preferences and choices, which are essential to our care planning around everyone’s unique requirements.

These are a few of the many ways our service promotes Dignity within our homes:

  • Involve Residents and families, to tailor their presences of care and support
  • Respect all personal space and possessions
  • Handle hygiene activities sensitively and discreetly
  • Understand how to detect pain and to respond with medical assistance
  • Promote social activities, which are meaningful to the individual
  • Let people make their own decisions which give them empowerment
  • Be available to always listen to how another may feel.

Get in touch

For a Complimentary Assessment of care and support needs, please contact our head office and they will arrange a call to suit you or your love one. the Registered Home manager will call you directly and discuss your care and support we can offer.

Health Under The Spotlight | Identifying Dementia

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Identifying Dementia – Changes in behaviour

All of our staff are fully trained in Identifying and understanding and Dementia.

There are certain changes in behaviour which can help in identifying dementia. A person may start to behave differently as their dementia progresses.

Many loved ones and friends can find dealing with this more difficult than adjusting to changes such as memory loss. Some common changes you may see include:

  • Restlessness – for example, pacing or fidgeting
  • Repetition – for example, asking the same questions, or repeating an action, over and over
  • Night-time waking, sleeplessness. Also known as ‘sundowning’ – is a term given for increased agitation or confusion in the late afternoon and early evening
  • Putting things in unusual places, and then forgetting where they are
  • Lack of inhibition, such as socially inappropriate behaviour in public. This is particularly common in the behavioural form of frontotemporal dementia
  • Suspicion – for example, the person thinking someone has taken something which belongs to them when they have actually mislaid it.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch for a free care needs assessment by contacting your nearest Atkinson’s home, or head office. We will guide you through the necessary steps for short or long term stays.

Resources:

Dementia UK

Kindness in the Sandhurst Community | Start small

Small Acts of Kindness in Sandhurst | COVID aware Kindness

Spreading joy can be done from anywhere.

During these difficult times, it’s easy to feel like your connection with the outside world has gotten smaller, but there are many ways to strengthen your sense of community while still practicing social distancing, and one way to start is with an act of kindness. Here are a few ideas on how you can spread Kindness in our little Sandhurst community:

  • Do local elderly neighbours need anything from the shop? It’s easy for many people to just walk or drive to the local shop to collect weekly food items, but spare a thought for some elderly people who may feel afraid and isolated during this time and may not have access to a car – why not, pop a card through there door, asking if there is anything they may need, you can put your phone number on the card, or ask them to put the card outside their door and list any items they may need.
  • Foster an animal – Since you’re spending more time at home, now could be a good time to help out fostering an animal. Local rescue homes offer many fostering plans which could be short-term to suit. The effects of having a pet around the home could not only be good fun but also elevate stress.
  • Make a Scrapbook for your Grandparents. Getting creative is a great way to stay active while you’re spending more time at home. Consider making a special scrapbook for your grandparents, go through old photo albums and repurpose some common household items to make the perfect reminiscence scrapbook for elderly members of your family.
  • Donate any extra food to your local foodbank
  • Start a cloth mask stand. Either for free or take donations and pass it on to the chosen charity.
  • Start a Fundraiser.
  • Leave reviews for your favourite local businesses! In the digital age, a good review is more appreciated than you may know.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. While these may seem small, kindness has a funny way of going further than you could ever imagine. You can never know how a small act can change someone’s day. Start today! Spread Kindness in the Sandhurst Community in your own way.

Get in touch

Got questions? We’d love to hear from you. OR if you have some more community kindness ideas, comment below!

Tel: 01252 871751
Email: Diana@AtkinsonsHomes.com