Care home conversations

Bringing together people living and working in residential and care homes during COVID-19

Care homes and other shared residential settings are undoubtedly feeling the impact of COVID-19 and people who live and work in these settings have needed to adapt in extremely difficult circumstances.

Just some of the many challenges care homes are facing include grief, restrictions to visiting and changes to everyday routines. We also know that residents and workers have responded with courage.

The South West Integrated Personalised Care team (SWIPC) is partnering with the South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (PenARC) to:

Understand people’s experiences of how COVID-19 is affecting care homes as places to live and work
Highlight what is currently working well or not
Identify and develop a picture of ‘what could be’ in the future.

A series of conversations were convened in May and June 2020, hosted via Zoom, bringing together people living and working in care homes and other shared residential settings, as well as care home managers, owners, GPs, commissioners and others visiting care homes.

Each conversation focused on the things that matter to people supporting or living and working in care homes, as well as listening to participants' thoughts and experiences first-hand.

The questions posed in the conversations were:

1. What matters to you about living or working in a residential or care home?

2. What are the things we would/would not want to change?

3. What is going to make the most difference?

Please read our report summary or full report and add your comments to our Facebook page.

Related research: Exeter Care Homes and Knowledge (ExCHANGE)

ExCHANGE is a collaboration between organisations in Devon and the South West Peninsula concerned with the care and happiness of care home residents.

Case studies

What matters to people living and working in care homes?

What matters to people working in care homes

During May and June 2020, a series of conversations were held with people supporting, living and working in residential care homes.

The conversations, which feature Professor Richard Byng, aimed to understand what mattered to them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch this video by the South West Integrated Personalised Care team

Meet the team

Professor Richard Byng

Professor in Primary Care Research/PenARC Deputy Director
Dr Rebecca Hardwick

NIHR South West Peninsula ARC (PenARC) Senior Research Fellow (Mental Health)
Mrs Margaret Hart

Research Group Co-ordinator