Care Home Group Offers 40 Staff Members ‘Namaste Care’ Training To Enhance Its Specialist Dementia Care Offering

A family run care home group has trained 40 members of staff to effectively deliver a Namaste Care Programme in a selection of its care communities, as it looks to further enhance its dementia care offering.

Nellsar Care Homes, which operates 13 homes across Kent, Surrey and Essex, has offered comprehensive training to staff across three of its homes — teaching them to focus on the needs and wishes of each individual resident.

Residents living with dementia often become very frail and can find it difficult to communicate with other people. The Namaste Care approach looks to engage people at a physical, sensory and emotional level, using activities such as music, aroma, touch, visual stimulation, drinks and snacks.

Namaste, the Hindu term for ‘to honour the spirit within’, is designed to use inexpensive supplies that would not require additional carers or dedicated spaces. The two basic principles of the programmes are creating a calm environment and providing all activities and interactions with an unhurried, loving touch approach.

One of the homes that has embraced this care model is Bromley Park, in Beckenham, which recently had a visit from Joyce Simard, founder of Namaste Care International (NCI). This offered the home an opportunity to showcase the benefits of the care model and yielded some great feedback from Joyce and Nicola Kendall, University of Durham NCI Associate Director, who accompanied her on the visit.

Commenting on the efforts of Bromley Park, Joyce said: “It was a pleasure to visit Bromley Park when I was in the UK for a conference. I was able to watch staff offering Namaste Care to residents and was impressed with the loving touch they used. I write and speak about Namaste Care all the time, however, to see it being implemented first-hand always warms my heart! Thank you Bromley Park for making Namaste Care a part of the lives of so many people.”

Commenting on the implementation of this care technique, Viv Stead, Recreation and Well-Being Manager at Nellsar, said: “We are over the moon with the impact the Namaste training has had already across the three homes. It allows our care teams to offer the ultimate person-centred approach to dementia care and we hope to continue offering this training across all of our homes. We will also be encouraging family members to join us, as we know what a powerful impact it can have for loved ones.”