Archived: Harmony Care

At the time of our inspection visit there were 51 older people living at Harmony Care. We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of people using the service, because many of the people using the service had complex needs which meant they were not able to tell us their experiences.

We spoke with four relatives of people who used the service during our inspection visit and received information from two relatives via our website. The overall feedback from relatives was mainly positive. Comments included 'I am very happy with the care provided', 'during tea time, staff seemed very polite to the patients and treated them with respect' and 'On my recent visit to Harmony Care Home, I was very surprised to see how well the patients are cared for'.

One relative told us that there had been some recent improvements to the care that people received during the day, but remained concerned about the vulnerability of their family member at night. They told us that they felt there was not sufficient supervision of people with dementia at night leaving people vulnerable.

Although the feedback about people's experiences was mainly positive, we found that some of the more vulnerable people did not always receive the level of care they needed and should expect. There were some very caring staff at Harmony Care; however, there was a lack of oversight of the planning and delivery of care which resulted in people not always getting the care they needed.

Many of the people living at Harmony Care had dementia with associated communication difficulties. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We saw that people were relaxed in the presence of staff and that staff were available and responded to people's needs.

We talked with several people who used the service. Some of these people were able to tell us that they liked particular staff and thought that they were well looked after.

We spoke with several relatives of people who used the service during our inspection visit. We also received information from relatives via our website. We found that people's experiences varied. One person told us 'The care home is brilliant, I couldn't be happier.' Relatives also told us about how committed some of the staff were to caring for people living in the home. Two relatives described incidents that they had witnessed involving people with dementia which left them worried about whether all staff had the necessary training and experience to meet people's needs.