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Oak Lodge: care home review
Dan Parton visited Oak Lodge Rest Home in Brownhills in the West Midlands and spoke to husband and wife team David and Pamela Wilson.
About Oak Lodge
Oak Lodge Rest Home is in a quiet residential street in Brownhills, a town in the West Midlands. The home is about a mile from the town centre and is close to main roads, bus routes and shops.
The home was originally built as a private residence, but has since been significantly extended and now comprises 17 single but decently-sized bedrooms, the majority of which are en-suite.
Despite its extensions, Oak Lodge retains a homely feel and is decorated in the style of a regular house. Residents are also free to bring their own furniture.
Residents are generally elderly frail – residents range from 80-99 years old – while some also have mild dementia.
CSCI report and cost
Oak Lodge currently has a 2-star ‘good’ rating from regulator CSCI.
In its most recent inspection report from January 2007, CSCI rated Oak Lodge’s facilities as ‘good’ in 5 of its 7 areas of assessment, with only ‘choice of home’ and ‘daily life and social activities’ marked as merely ‘adequate’.
The home was praised for “promoting the privacy and dignity of residents” and having a friendly atmosphere “creating an inclusive place for residents to live”.
Weekly prices at Oak Lodge range from £360-£380.
The managers’ view
Pamela and David Wilson are joint managers and bring a family ethos to the way they run Oak Lodge. Residents are made to feel they are part of a family and are treated as such.
The husband and wife team are hands-on in their management of the home. For example, they often take residents out on trips themselves and bring in their own pets, including a parrot.
David adds that if a resident needs to go into hospital for any reason, they will take them there if a relative is not available and also visit them daily if they are admitted.
Oak Lodge also has a low turnover of staff, so the residents can develop relationships with their carers, which adds to the close-knit family atmosphere.
Pamela believes the low turnover is partly down to the family atmosphere and that staff also have the opportunity to develop their career, with NVQ and other training offered to all.
In keeping with the homely feel, all food is cooked at Oak Lodge and is made largely from locally-grown produce supplied by a nearby farm.
Life at Oak Lodge
Mealtimes provide the main structure for the day at Oak Lodge. “There is routine around mealtimes, but otherwise residents can do what they like,” Pamela says. “Relatives can come and visit at any time – we always make them welcome, make them a cup of tea and such like.”
There are regular activities for residents at Oak Lodge, including bingo, board games and gentle exercise. In addition, a singer regularly visits. There are also seasonal events, such as barbeques in the summer and a Christmas party.
For more active residents, regular trips out are organised, such as to nearby Lichfield and Chasewater and also to local garden centres. Later this summer, Pamela and David plan to take some of the residents to Weston-super-Mare.
Oak Lodge also staged its own version of Springwatch recently, as residents were able to follow the progress of a bird’s nest in the garden thanks to a camera installed in the birdbox.
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