Choosing The Location Of Your Care Home
Finding a care home for a loved one can be an extremely stressful and challenging experience, and often one that people only do infrequently so it’s certainly not something they do every day! Location of a care home is critical. Here we take you through the key location points to think about when choosing a care home.
Who is it close to?
This is often the biggest mistake people make when choosing a care home. It’s often a decision made in a panicked time and they select a home which is close to where their loved one currently lives. What they should do is choose a care home as close as possible to where their friends and family who will regularly visit are. This means that if a family live round the corner from our care home in Speldhurst, on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells but their mum lives in the Midlands somewhere, assuming their mum can make the journey they would be much better off coming to our care home than one near where their mum lives as they would then be able to visit as frequently as required.
So this should be a key consideration when choosing the location of a care home – choose somewhere that’s as close as possible to friends and family most likely to visit.
What are the grounds like?
Not everyone is the outdoorsy type and some would be happy in a care home where they stay inside for the majority of the day. This is a hard point for us to be unbiased on as we’re extremely proud of our 9-acre gardens located in a beautiful manor house. Many residents love spending time outside when they can, and often grandchildren will be down enjoying the grounds too.
This is something to consider when selecting the location of a care home – what are the gardens like and how important is this to the individual going into the care home.
What’s nearby?
Some who are looking for a care home want to be active and have the ability to pop into town should they need to, and there are homes in towns where this is possible whereas others either aren’t physically able to do this or don’t want to. Although we don’t have a town on our doorstep, wherever possible we do our best to keep our residents integrated within the local community. Whether it’s a trip to sea World in Brighton, visiting a local school at Christmas or singing carols with the Speldhurst Girl Guides, we get out and about as much we can!
So if you do have an individual moving into a care home but looking to maintain the ability to amble into town, look for a care home near a town centre.
Location, location, location!
Again, completely dependent on the individual, but what do they like? Have they always lived in big cities? Do they like the hustle and bustle of a town nearby? Or do they love living in the countryside or perhaps by the beach?
What is the building like?
Slightly less purely ‘location’ related, the type of building is an important consideration when choosing a care home. We’re proud of our historic manor house with beautiful grounds here at Birchwood House, but we’re not huge and we’re not purpose built, which is something we’re very proud of. What this does mean is that we’re not the right for everyone and some may prefer a large, purpose built care home. You can find more information about the comparison between a purpose built care home and a home from home here.
We hope this guide is useful, and if you’re not sure about where would be the best place for your lved one’s care home to be located, do get in touch with us and we will help in whatever way we can!
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