Aims & Objectives
Privacy
It is recognised that life in a communal setting and the need to accept help with some personal tasks reduce the resident’s ability to enjoy the pleasure of being alone and undisturbed. Long Meadow therefore strive to respect a resident’s privacy in the following ways:
- Being as discreet as possible when providing personal assistance.
- Allowing residents to equip and furnish their rooms with their own belongings and furniture, if they so wish to, and allowing them to use them as much as they desire for leisure, meals and entertaining.
- Offering a range of locations around the home to be alone or with selected others.
- Providing locks on resident’s rooms and personal storage space thus giving them the privacy they require and ability to store their personal posessions.
- Facilitating complete privacy when using the telephone, opening and reading mail and when talking with friends, relatives and advisors.
- Ensuring confidentiality of information, the home holds about residents.
Dignity
Long Meadow try to preserve the dignity of residents in the following ways:
- Treating each resident as a valued individual.
- Helping residents to present themselves as they would wish to be presented through choosing their own clothing and personal appearance.
- Offering a range of activities that is fulfilling to all residents and allows them to express themselves as unique and individual.
- Compensating for the effects of disabilities that residents may experience.
Independence
It is understood that some independence is sacrificed when moving into a communal setting. Long Meadow attempts to minimise this by having person centred practice.
- Providing as tactfully as possible assistance as and when needed.
- Maximising the abilities of our residents to self-care, for interaction with others and for carrying out tasks of daily living as long as practicable and safe.
- Retaining, encouraging and promoting contacts beyond the home.
- Encouraging residents to contribute and formulate the records of their own care needs.
Security
Many residents may seek care at Long Meadow as an escape from elements in their previous living environment that threatened their safety or caused them fear.
We therefore aim to provide a secure and safe environment and a structure of support that responds to their individual needs as follows:
- Offering assistance with tasks and activities that would otherwise be perilous for residents.
- Minimising and avoiding, as far as possible, the risk of falling.
- Protecting residents from all forms of abuse and from all possible abusers.
- Providing a clear, precise complaints procedure.
- By creating an atmosphere which residents experience as open, positive, and inclusive for all.
Civil Rights
Long Meadow will work to maintain our residents place in society as fully participating and benefitting citizens in the following ways:
- Ensuring residents have the opportunity to vote and by ensuring they have the necessary information to brief themselves on their democratic option.
- Ensuring residents full and equal access to all elements of both Social and National Health Services including treatment and benefits.
- Assisting residents with access to public services such as public libraries.
- Facilitating residents’ contributions to society through helping each other and taking on roles of responsibility within the home.
Choice
We aim to allow residents to exercise the opportunity of choice in all aspects of their lives in the following ways:
- Providing a varied choice of menu at mealtimes, which will enable residents, as far as possible, to decide for themselves what they wish to eat and where and with whom they wish to eat it with.
- Offering residents, a wide range of leisure activities and outings to choose from.
- Maintaining flexibility by having as little routine as possible within the home (with the exception of mealtimes).
- Avoid treating residents as a group rather than individuals.
Fulfilment
We will help residents to realise personal aspirations in all aspects of their lives. We will seek to assist in the following ways:
- By learning about their individual histories and characteristics.
- Providing a range of leisure and recreational activities to suit tastes and abilities of all residents to stimulate participation.
- Responding appropriately to the personal, intellectual, artistic and spiritual values and needs of every resident.
- Respecting residents’ religious, ethnic and cultural diversity.