Kyrebrook Daycare Centre – Press Release

Kyrebrook Daycare Centre – Needs your support

Day care centres overlooked in the approach to good health care

Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, 3 January 2023

It seems that you can’t mention the NHS or Adult Social Care without hearing about delays in ambulance response times and ambulances queued around A&E departments, hospital bed blocking, lack of care packages, staff shortages and lack of money to fund care.

On the flip side, day care centres for the elderly are facing an all-time low attendance, with many having to lay off staff, diversify or, worst case scenario, close their doors altogether.

Wind the clock back 10 years and these same day centres were thriving, because they were seriously viewed as part of a holistic approach to maintaining good health for the elderly. Day care managers were involved in discussions with hospital social workers, county council social workers and NHS support staff, and day care often formed part of the care package, particularly for those living with dementia, frailty or social isolation, and those being released from hospital.

Not only representing value for money, the mental stimulation that day care provides, together with the social interaction, helps to keep people fitter, healthier and much less likely to suffer with the depression and other illnesses associated with social isolation. Keeping the mind and body active improves the ability to stay independent at home longer – a cheaper alternative to residential care and better for the person who wants to stay in their own home. Other benefits include much needed respite for the family and friends struggling to meet the demands of unpaid carers, and who are often elderly and vulnerable themselves. Day care also ensures the correct nutrition and hydration, reducing urinary infections, which debilitate the elderly and often end in falls, fractures and even more 999 calls.

So how can it be that day care is hitting such a low level of attendance and its future is in such danger? In a nutshell, lack of referrals from the NHS and Adult Social Care. Covid has undoubtedly changed how once local services have now become centralised, but the rot was setting in long before Covid.

Ria Baxter, Manager of Kyrebrook Daycare Centre in Tenbury Wells, says, “It makes no sense whatsoever that a service with such a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable older people is not being valued, particularly when domiciliary agencies are having such severe staffing problems and, in some cases, are handing back care packages to county council or refusing to take new clients onboard. Community hospitals are full of elderly patients bed blocking because they cannot secure a care package at home. It makes sense to at least try to empty those wards during the day, to day care, so patients are more mobile, mentally stimulated, and more confident to face the outside world. This also frees up nursing staff to do the job they are trained to do, rather than taking on the role of social carers, and it would certainly reduce the need for medication and lunch time calls from domiciliary agencies during the day. Additional money has been allocated to county councils for adult social care, but there’s a distinct lack of it being utilised for day care, where there are excellent trained staff and resources . ”

There has to be serious consideration of how the future will look without day care in the community and how the loss will further impact the wellbeing of our ageing population.

-END-

About Kyrebrook Daycare Centre:

A not for profit, community interest company, Kyrebrook supports elderly and vulnerable adults from Tenbury Wells and the surrounding areas. Many clients live with life limiting diseases, such as dementia, frailty and social isolation. At full capacity, Kyrebrook can support 75 client sessions a week, but has lost over 30 client sessions per week in the past 9 months. Without referrals or funding from Adult Social Care or the NHS , Kyrebrook faces imminent closure.

Further Information:

Contact: Ria Baxter

Telephone: 01584 318 030

Website: www.kyrebrook.org.uk

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