How to manage chronic illnesses in care homes

For many residents in care homes, a chronic illness can have a huge impact on their lives. It influences their daily routine and impacts the types of choices they make throughout the day. Getting the right type of care for those with any form of chronic illness should be a top priority for care homes around the country.

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Chronic illnesses in care homes

For many residents in care homes, a chronic illness can have a huge impact on their lives. It influences their daily routine and impacts the types of choices they make throughout the day. Getting the right type of care for those with any form of chronic illness should be a top priority for care homes around the country. Chronic illness management is required to help those living with long-term health conditions have a better quality of life. For care homes, this means ensuring patients with chronic illnesses get the support and care they require.

If chronic illnesses aren’t managed effectively, budgets, resources and time can be wasted, and patients can feel let down by the care they are receiving. However, if managed well, those with chronic illnesses can feel empowered through a health care service that understands their unique circumstances and prevents further health complications down the line.

A big proportion of the care home population will have some type of chronic illness. As a definition, it relates to those who are living with a certain long-term health condition, which describes a noticeable proportion of elderly people in care homes. This means care homes should look to create clear processes to ensure they are doing all they can to support those living with a chronic illness.

CareDocs Blog Health and Wellbeing How to Manage Chronic Illnesses in Care Homes

Supporting patient management

The first step to effective caring for residents living with chronic illnesses is helping them to support their own personal management of this. If residents can manage their own illness, this is a great place to start. The right tools and plans should be provided to keep conditions under control, helping ensure things don’t worsen and avoiding further complications.

A great example of this is type 2 diabetes. If residents are supported in relation to managing their blood sugar levels, they are more likely to avoid serious complications that they might be susceptible too if managed poorly. The management of such a condition will play a huge impact in the quality of life that resident is able to live. In this example, focusing on the diet and exercise throughout the day, may mean an individual requires less medication, or at the very least, avoids putting their blood sugar into dangerous levels.

A person-centred care approach is the best way to ensure each person is supported in a way that works for them. Some residents will simply need reminding to take medication, while others may need more interaction and engagement. Some chronic illnesses may need nursing staff to physically help them in or out of bed, or help support them during activities.

Utilising care home software and digital care plans enables care workers to easily record and communicate the management of each resident’s daily routine and chronic illness. This means the care for each individual is seamless from day-to-day. This data can also help illustrate patterns and potential issues that may arise. This leads to proactive decision-making to help ensure the resident’s wellbeing is at the forefront of the service.

Those with chronic illnesses may end up having care records that become vast and complex, but by having a clear system and digital record of this, care homes can extract the information they need with ease. Effective support management also eliminates unnecessary visits to specialist health professionals. This makes a huge difference into the type of care available as it focuses on a preventative management instead of a treatment.

If we use our type 2 diabetes example again, by keeping a health record and daily routine of residents, a carer may spot that their involvement in activities has slowly decreased over the month and this may mean their chronic illness isn’t being managed as effectively as before. As a result, the carer can be proactive in ensuring the condition is being managed effectively going forward.

CareDocs Blog Health and Wellbeing How to Manage Chronic Illnesses in Care Homes Supporting Patient Management

Chronic illness management & care coordination

Some chronic illnesses will get worse, even if the individual has followed their personal management care plan. In this scenario, it’s about ensuring they have access to all the relevant resources to getting better.

An increasing role for care homes is being able to effectively communicate resident records to other health professionals and organisations. Chronic illnesses can often be hard to treat due to the complexities of these illnesses in conjunction with other health problems/circumstances. Care homes need to be equipped to send vital resident data to specialists and other health professionals as and when required.

The ability for care homes to work effectively with the other health professionals is a defining factor in how the resident can recover from complications and issues arising from their chronic illness. Transparency and quick access to records means health professionals across organisational boundaries can work collaboratively to help support the care. Having care plans that are quickly adaptable if new recommendations and care is required, means care homes can offer continual support that isn’t disruptive to patients.

Chronic illnesses and CareDocs

Here at CareDocs, we are driven to help care homes become more effective in their delivery of care and patient support, through innovative care home software. Our software solutions are designed to make the lives of those working in care homes easier, and make it easier for them to make the difference they want to.

The management of chronic illnesses is just one example of how CareDocs can help add value to your care home. Care planning is at the heart of CareDocs and as well as providing a quick and easy way to carry out comprehensive care assessments, you’ll be able to produce fully personalised care plans in a matter of minutes.

For information about our how our care home software can support your business, get in touch today at 0330 056 3333 or email sales@caredocs.co.uk.

Want more information on care planning? Check out this free ebook: 

Introduction to care planning

Originally published on November 30, 2018
Article updated on May 25, 2022

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