Our care staff call residents ‘love’ as they treat them like people

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/16/care-staff-residents-love-care-home-harrogate

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There has been an enormous and entirely unexpected interest this week in whether paid carers should call people they look after “love”, “sweetie”, “handsome” or any of these other terms of endearment. I certainly walked into a blizzard of press enquiries on Monday morning after our local newspaper in Harrogate reported on our recent CQC inspection report.

Related: Cheer up, love: only joyless people object to terms of endearment

The inspectors were positive. They found our residential care home for people with learning disabilities was safe, effective and well-led. “Staff knew people well and we observed they were at ease and comfortable with the staff who supported them,” they said. “Staff took time to speak with the people and we saw friendly relaxed interactions between staff and people living in the care home.”

But they also noted the use of terms such as “love” and “darling”, and referred us to the CQC guidelines on treating people with respect and dignity, because they said using terms like that could be construed as patronising.

The guidelines say that staff must treat people with dignity and respect at all times, and in a caring and compassionate way, and that all communication with people using services must be respectful – which includes using or facilitating the most suitable means of communication. They also say that people using the service should be addressed in the way they prefer.

Because of this, I have spent a few days speaking openly about our confidence that we are meeting the guidelines, despite using terms of endearment. I told the media that the CQC is a valuable ally for helping small, third-sector organisations such as ours, which has just begun providing residential care, to make sure we get it right. I was pleased with our inspection report, and felt it was an accurate snapshot of the home at the time.

Related: Sorry, love: Harrogate care home will use 'darling', despite CQC warning

But the real story behind the headlines is that we are making the transition from privately run business to a not-for-profit social enterprise run by a charity, supporting 80-100 people with learning disabilities. Learning disability is a difficult cause to portray to the public: it isn’t as easy to empathise with as hospice care, cancer research or maltreated animals. Also, the impact of social care funding cuts has been the withdrawal of vulnerable adults from life-enhancing activities such as dance, singing and arts courses. So we have responded by looking for social investment loan funding so that we could extend beyond daycare and adult education to provide a safe, effective, caring, place to live for our beneficiaries.

We took a risk when we bought a care home service at a time of reduced social care spending, pressures to pay living wages, the introduction of workplace pensions and a new system of care home inspections. We have done this with our eyes wide open and we have met all of these challenges, and we know we are doing a better job.

I would like to think that philanthropists, public donors and grant-making trusts would support us and other charities like us to succeed. The difficulty is that our work and our beneficiary group is almost invisible to the public – except when we call them “dear” and “love”, and it makes the news.

So when the inspectors call again in 2016, we will be delighted to show the clear benefits we have achieved: more accountable services, transparent financial dealings, a more fulfilling life for vulnerable people and improved pay and conditions for care workers. But I’m sure that the entirely appropriate use of first names, terms of endearment and colloquialisms, which are quite consistent with caring, compassionate relationships between people, will still be evident.

Why? Because it is appreciated by residents and family carers alike – I know this because they have told me so. I’m confident the inspectors will agree with us.