25 April 2012
During an inspection looking at part of the service
We were told about how they were able to choose whether to join in with group activities and those people that did join in with these activities spoke about how much they enjoyed them. Other people chose to occupy themselves in their private rooms doing activities such a listening to music, watching their television or reading books.
People told us there was always staff available to provide support and respond to call bells promptly. They told us they had confidence that staff had the necessary skills to provide the care and support they needed.
For some people living at the home, because of their level of dementia they were unable to directly communicate their needs and views. Because of this we used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI) in one of the lounge areas. SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. Our SOFI observation showed that staff were aware about how different people expressed their decisions. This meant that people who were unable to communicate directly were still able to express their choices and staff would respond to their choices.
It was evident in the actions of staff members that they knew the interests of people who were unable to communicate directly. People were responding positively to music being played in the lounge: tapping their feet in rhythm to the music and whistling along with the music.