By Tatiana Aversa Sanchez
Maycroft Manor care home in Brighton opened its doors to the wider community to allow members of the public to find out more about care homes and their standards.
A sizzling fruit barbeque, afternoon tea and live jazz music were among the entertainment for the open day on Friday (20 June).
Anahid Amari, receptionist at Maycroft Manor, said: “Today is giving people the chance to see if they want to take up residency here.
“If people have got any family that need to come to a nursing home then they get to look around today and see what they think.
“From my experience of working here, everybody will love it.”
This Brighton care home’s bedrooms are elegantly furnished and have their own en-suite facilities, while most rooms on the ground floor have direct access to the private patio garden.
There are about 100 rooms all of which have their own television, telephone points, wifi access and electric profiling bed.
Maycroft Manor care home won a Pinders Award in 2014 for healthcare design.
It caters for residents aged from 70 to 100 years old.
Joan Malek, 92, first to take up residency in December last year, said: “I can’t think of anything I don’t like.
“I have been to several homes and this one is sheer heaven. It’s out of this world, they take me around the premises each day where I am able to look at and admire the beautiful architecture and gardens.
“The architecture, the design, everything about this place is just amazing. Not only that, but the staff are out of this world.
“Every morning they come to my room at 6am to help get me changed and make sure that I feel comfortable.
“The care home I was in before did not make me feel as though I always had somebody to talk to. I felt lonely.”
Joan Malek suffers from anxiety as she has had a damaged nervous system since birth.
She has written two books, The Many Faces of Love and Stimuli in Response to the Soul.
Among those who attended the open day event was the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and adult social care services in England.
The purpose of the CQC is to make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and they encourage providers to improve these services if necessary. They aim to ensure that fundamental standards are met.
A CQC spokesman said: ‘’We are here to inspect and fundamentally ensure that the correct standards are met for all residents who deserve great care.’’
The CQC’s last registered inspection of Maycroft Manor was in November last year.
Closing a home or an agency should always be a last resort in the eyes of the CQC but it does happen.
Last year the CQC stopped 32 care homes and 47 homecare providers from operating because it believed that people were at risk.
The Orchid View care home in West Sussex, which was run by Southern Cross in Copthorne, closed in 2011. Nineteen deaths there have been investigated.
Five of those cases involved neglect, according to the BBC.
When asked what one should look for in a care home when choosing the right place for an elderly family member, Miss Amari said: “You need to be looking for a caring environment above all.
“A good atmosphere and friendly, caring team members make a world of difference and that is what you can find here.”
Facilities at Maycroft Manor include two hairdressers, a reflexologist and a chiropodist who visits as desired, approximately every 2 weeks.
Residents also receive a three-course meal twice a day.
Pictures by Tatiana Aversa Sanchez
