Buying and running a care home?

elsien

I've got a niche market for you to consider, but it's not going to be easy (is it ever?) People with learning disabilities and dementia.

Now that adults with learning disabilities are living longer, people with Down's syndrome are developing dementia at a higher rate than than the general population, at a younger age and the illness gallops a lot faster than in people who do not have Down's syndrome.
They need a nursing home, but many nursing homes won't touch them partly because of their age (they may be anything from 40 upwards) and partly because they don't know anything about learning disability. There are very few dual registered nursing homes who can/want to cater to this client group. And the people generally can't stay where they are because registered homes/supported living projects for people with learning disabilities (unless it is for profound disabilities) tend not to be nursing homes, so we can't cope once the alzheimers really gets hold.
I would say that is a real gap in the market at the moment, (in my area anyway) but you would need to know about both learning disability and dementia/nursing care.

Errata

or what I need to be looking into as regards training.

It's difficult to suggest anything without knowing which population group you would like to open a home for, but I would recommend you take responsibility for your own learning, perhaps through an appropriate degree with the Open University.
The manager of a care home for older people I know well is an SRN, RMN and has a first degree and is now doing a Masters. The home is dual registered and provides respite and palliative care.

Elsien - I can't remember which one and it may be a pilot but I head a mental health trust has just opened a supported living facility for people with learning difficulties, complex physical health problems and organic mental health problems.

goals*

paulabear wrote: »

Hi Savvy-Sue that's exactly what I'm going to aim for now, the hands-on experience of managing a home and struggling to cover all bases while keeping the staff happy! After having three small children, should be a doddle... I'm joking obviously I'm looking for positions currently where I'd be able to get the training I want.
I agree with you about the niche market being difficult to make cost-effective, we've been saying that we also need to pick our position carefully in order to have enough of our client group 'available' locally to be able to fill our rooms. It's not enough to have a lovely pretty home in the middle of nowhere and advertise, we need to be seen and heard of in an area where there are people who fit our criteria.
I was recently made redundant from a nursing home who were struggling as several of their residents had recently passed away and they had not been successful in 'filling their rooms' (I think it sounds terrible, like a factory process, but I suppose in practical terms it's necessary and has to be referred to somehow). I saw the problems the lower-rated care home on the Gerry Robinson program was having in doing this and think it would be important to have a very specific package of care detailed for family or guardians of potential service users so that if they came to look at the place they could see eactly what was in place, not just hear vague details about what might happen. I'd also be hoping to encourage involvement from families to whatever degree it was possible, as this is hugely positive for everyone involved (for the most part!) from what I've seen in other places.
Obviously this is speculation and theorising; I'll have a much more practical view of what's possible when I've had more hands-on experience. I know from experience that occasionally after an inspection a home where I worked was asked to make small changes that seemed unneccessary, but we assumed they felt they had to tell us to do something, or they might look like they weren't doing their job properly but that's a good point about purpose-built homes, thank you.
Errata and edgex, thanks, we have been talking about this, I've worked for home care companies too and know that this is being promoted as it's a lot more cost-effective and better for people if they can stay in their own homes as to some degree people going into care can react negatively and become 'institutionalised' to whatever degree; I've seen this happen, a long time ago
We were looking more into mental health, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, or else adults with drugs or alcohol problems (more transient, and this is the one I'm nervous about, but my friend works in a hostel currently so she knows how it works; she's applying for the manager's job at the moment).
Again, thank you for the great advice it's all helpful!

You have thr right ideas certainly. Always worth considering the governments future plans. As care home are stuggling, nuseries are booming. Th goverment wants all mum with 7 year olds to go back to work compared to before when they were left to choose when and if they wanted to work. Morning and after school clubs will be busier and also holiday play groups. worth looking in too....

Savvy_Sue

goals* wrote: »

You have thr right ideas certainly. Always worth considering the governments future plans. As care home are stuggling, nuseries are booming. Th goverment wants all mum with 7 year olds to go back to work compared to before when they were left to choose when and if they wanted to work. Morning and after school clubs will be busier and also holiday play groups. worth looking in too....

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, twice!

Plenty of money for setting up new schemes, pretty much nada for keeping them going. So, if you take the government's money and set one up in an economically deprived area, thinking that once you are established it will be possible to keep parents using the facility once the initial money stops and you have to charge the full whack for everything, think again.

They've done the same to SureStart too: throw money at the 'problem' short term, expect things which work to keep running magically when govt priorities change and there's no more funding.

My advice, honestly, is NOT to be dependent on government funding initially, and only look for it much much later ...