Residential care
For someone managing at home, but only just, and only with help. Twenty rooms, your own furniture in them, and somebody awake in the building all night.
Residential care is the least dramatic thing we do and the hardest to describe on a website. Nobody's ill exactly. It's that the shopping has got heavy, the stairs have got long, the tablets have got confusing, and cooking for one stopped being worth it about two years ago.
What we take off someone is the twenty small jobs a day that were quietly eating their independence.
What we do, day to day
The personal things
Washing, dressing, getting to the loo at night. As much or as little as somebody wants, and we'd always rather help with half of it than all of it.
Tablets, on time
Ordered, checked, given and recorded. This is the one families are most relieved to hand over, and usually the reason they rang in the first place.
Three meals and a cake
Cooked here by Mark, two choices at lunch, and an omelette if neither appeals. Cake at half three, in the garden if it's dry.
The whole of the laundry
Washed, ironed, and back in the right wardrobe. Everything gets named, and we'd rather do it than have you taking a bag home every Sunday.
Something to do
The Thursday quiz, the minibus out in summer, and Carol the hairdresser on Wednesdays at her own prices. No obligation to join in, which matters more than the list does.
Someone awake at night
Awake, in the building, all night, every night, with a call bell that gets answered. Not on call from a flat next door.
Bring your own furniture.
Every room has a basin, a TV aerial point, a phone point and a window that opens. Six are on the ground floor and four of those open onto the garden. What makes them worth having is what you put in them: her chair, his books, the pictures off the landing, the lamp that's been on that table since 1988.
We'll help carry it in on moving day, and we'll put the bed where she wants it rather than where it fits best. Tap a photograph to see it larger.
Questions people ask.
Can he still go out on his own?
Yes. It's his home, not a ward. Plenty of our residents walk into the village, and one still drives. We ask people to let us know they're going out so we're not searching the building at teatime, and that's the whole of it.
What if she doesn't want to join in?
Then she doesn't. Some people are in the lounge from nine till nine and some come down for meals and go back up. Both are fine. What we won't do is leave someone alone for three days and call it a preference, so we'll keep gently asking.
Can couples come together?
We have two rooms with a connecting door and we've had three couples in them over the years, including one where only one of them needed care. Ring and ask, because it depends entirely on what's free at the time.
What happens if he needs nursing later?
We don't have nurses on our staff, so there's a point where we'd no longer be the right place. District nurses come in daily and that covers a lot, so most people never reach it. If it does happen we'll tell you early, help you find somewhere, and not spring it on you.
Residential care is £1,095 to £1,290 a week.
Standard rooms from £1,095, larger and garden rooms up to £1,290. Meals, personal care, laundry, activities and utilities are all inside that.
What isn't in it
Hairdressing, chiropody, newspapers, and a staff escort to hospital appointments. All four are listed on the fees page.
Come at lunchtime.
Half an hour on an ordinary day, mealtime included, so you see the home as it is.
Or ring us on 0116 496 0742