In the blog post Creative thinking for the living planet - ecospin doctors, we explored the importance of using suitable words to influence and change how people perceive the natural world. In this blog post, we are using the new word Eco Care-Icide to highlight the need for changes in the way care homes are rated and run.
In the UK, the care sectors have several standards and all care homes for the elderly as well as for people with learning disabilities are rated. This rating helps potential new service users and their families to make decisions regarding which care home that is the best and most suitable. Everyone wants to find the most caring home for their relatives. Moreover, it is important for the local authorities to rate the care homes since it helps them to identify if the standards are slipping.
Admittedly, inspections on its own will not improve the quality but it can provide the impetus to improve the quality of the care provided.
Five key questions are explored:
- Are they safe?
- Are they efficient?
- Are they caring?
- Are they responsive to people's needs?
- Are they well-led?
All of these questions are explored when a care home is inspected and each care home receive a rating depending on the results. The questions are valuable and important, yet, considering that the local authorities are funding at least some of the places for people with learning disabilities or elderly with low-income, other factors should maybe also be taken into account when assessing the care homes.
When exploring topics it is important to consider other people's and animals' views. In this case, it is important to consider the service users, their families, and the local authorities. In some care homes, animals are allowed and their perspective should also be considered.
Many of us struggle to consider the world from someone else's point of view. "Seeing" the world from someone else's point of view, is just an extreme form of shifting the focus. Admittedly, we can never see the world the world from someone else's perspective but we may gain important insight by trying.
- The care that the care home provides for the environment may be crucial for some service users and their families. And it should be important for the local authorities.
The rating standards are based on the idea that elderly people and people with learning disabilities and their families do not care about the environment when they are evaluating a care home.
Councils are responsible for the waste collection and it is vital that the waste are recycled. Care homes use large quantities of cleaning products and although the places should be spotless there are a wide range of environmentally friendly cleaning products that can be used.
Are there timers on the showers? Are the solar panels on the roof? Are locally and ecologically produced products used when cooking the meals?
Thus, it could be argued that it is important to rate how eco care- friendly a care home is or if eco care-ixide is going on. There is a connection between environmetnal issues, care homes, and the care that the service users take to leave the earth as they found it.