Difference between care home and nursing home?

[gondrinkin]

Hi, sorry this is so long
My mum needs more care than my 90 year old dad can give at home (even with carers coming in) so my sister and I had previously been looking around care homes, this was all before covid19 . We have been calling them back to see what the situation is with admissions in the current climate as things have deteriorated and my mum ended up in hospital in a rehab ward. Obviously they are looking to discharge her ASAP as she is unlikely to get any better regarding mobility. One home we called insisted that if my mum isn't weight bearing she would have to go in a nursing home and not a care home. My understanding was that nursing homes were only necessary if you needed nursing care i.e. complex wound dressing, other serious illnesses, whereas my mum is just frail and has some mild memory loss. When we visited the care homes I'd say half the residents we saw were not weight bearing.
If anyone can shed some light on this I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you

I thought the difference was that nursing homes had a specified number of nurses on duty at any time, and a care home didn't have this requirement for a specified number of nurses.

I tried googling "care home" non-weight-bearing and quickly found a CQC report on a care home which had a rehabilitation unit for non-weight-bearing residents (with an OT and physiotherapist), and NHS checklist for care homes to describe their capabilities, including whether they could cope with non-weight-bearing patients.

So my guess form this is that you are right to be looking for care homes, but you would need to check each care home individually because not of all them can cope with a non-weight-bearing resident.

Hi, I work in social care.

There are 2 different registrations for care homes, residential and nursing. A nursing home will have qualified nursing staff, a residential home does not.

In days gone by if someone needed assistance of 2 to transfer (eg they needed a hoist) they would go to a nursing home. This has changed, now unless they need regular help from a registered nurse we would usually place in a residential home.

If someone needs regular nursing care they are usually eligible to have this element of their care home fees paid for them through the 'funded nursing care' element of NHS 'continuing healthcare'.

If your mum has savings in excess of £23250 in her name (money in joint account is split 50/50, property if DDad still in it is disregarded) then she will be self funding. This means she will pay the full cost of her care but also give you choice. If local authority are paying some or all of the costs they should do an assessment ASAP - they will tell you what type of home she needs (and probably pick one for you based on where their existing contracts are).

Google 'Care Choices' followed by your local authority area. They publish excellent guides which are available online as PDFs which will take you through everything you need to know.

Good luck ❤️

Nursing homes have nurses / a nurse on duty all the time. Residential homes have just carers. Most care homes used to stipulate that residents needed to be mobile, continent and without any diagnosis of dementia etc. However, nowadays this is rarely the case and residential homes take on much more complex cases if there rooms are not full.

Thanks all, this is really useful info. I think we'll ring around a couple of others (we looked at 4 care and 1 nursing home) to see what they say. Unfortunately the care home we really liked gave us the advice about weight baring.

You need to ask if they are a residential or nursing home and are they able to care for a non weight bearing resident. Specify if she is totally bednound, can be safely got out of bed with help and maybe a hoist or is able to walk a few steps with help. The homes websites will list what help and level of care they offer.

What are the ward staff saying about her next step after discharge? Have social services visited her to assess her needs? They can do an urgent formal assessment which will conclude if a care home is sufficient. They may also suggest a care home admission on a ‘discharge to assess’ basis.

The care home you like may be more open to taking her with an official assessment of her needs from hospital / social services rather than a family member’s assessment. Social services still do needs assessments if you are self funding and they are much more knowledgeable in knowing what care elderly people need and how to put that into language care homes can interpret than a concerned relative.