Dartmouth House

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

At our last assessment we rated this key question as good. We looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

This key question has been rated as good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect. Staff treated people with kindness and compassion. Staff met peoples’ immediate needs. People had access to activities to promote and support their independence, health and wellbeing. People were supported by staff who felt valued by their leaders and their colleagues.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

Throughout our onsite visits we observed staff treated people with kindness and compassion and respected their dignity. We observed staff knocking on people’s bedroom doors before entering.

People told us that staff treated them with kindness and respected their privacy and dignity. People said that staff supported them to visit their family, and staff supported their family to visit the hospital if they wanted to.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure their care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences, taking account of their strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Staff said they supported people to meet their religious needs and attend religious and cultural celebrations and people confirmed this.

Staff had a good understanding of people’s individual needs, including their protected equality characteristics.

People who chose to, cooked meals together. People said they shared the same cultural background and liked to share this in their cooking.

The provider promoted people’s independence, and people had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People had access to a full range of activities to promote and support their independence, health and wellbeing.

People were supported to maintain relationships and networks that are important to them. People said that staff supported them to visit their family.

People had access to activities and the local community to promote and support their independence. Staff made links with local community groups to find out activities of interest or benefit to people and then supported people to take part in them.

Meals were provided by the hospital, but people were encouraged to develop their independence by planning and cooking some of their own meals. There was a kitchen that people could access to make their own drinks and prepare meals. There was a laundry room where people were supported to do their own laundry. One person had set up a recycling project at the hospital to try and encourage people to recycle more and staff supported them with this.

Community meeting minutes showed that people were given choices about their care and treatment and planned activities. The provider had a Patient Council and there was a representative from the hospital on the Council. They fed back to the Council any issues raised at community meetings and anything that individuals had raised with them.

The provider listened to and understood people's needs, views and wishes. They responded to these in that moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

Staff told us that people's needs, wishes and comfort were a priority, and we observed this during our inspection. People told us that staff responded to them when needed.

Minutes of community meetings showed that staff listened to people's views and responded to them.

Hundred percent of staff had received training in life support to ensure they could respond to a person in an emergency.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of our staff, and supported and enabled them to always deliver person centred care.

Staff told us they were supported in their role. They had debriefs after incidents and regular management and clinical supervision. Staff had an opportunity each week to attend reflective practice sessions with the psychologist either online or face to face.

The provider recognised the wellbeing needs of staff and allocated a budget to provide resources for staff to meet their wellbeing needs. Staff said they had regular breaks and there was a staff room where they could have a break. The provider offered a kitchen where staff had access to hot and cold drinks and bread to use whilst on duty.

Staff said they worked as a team and had regular staff meetings where managers listened to any concerns they had and took action to resolve.