UK Care Home Audit on Sexuality and Intimacy Training and Policy: care home managers’ responses needed
ENRICHEnabling Research in Care Homes
NEWS ARCHIVE
UK Care Home Audit on Sexuality and Intimacy Training and Policy: care home managers’ responses needed
Dr Laura Brown
We have been speaking to care home staff about some of the challenges they face in relation to the sexuality and intimacy needs and behaviour of their residents. For instance, they have described being unsure how to respond if residents begin new relationships when they have reduced mental capacity, or when their family don’t approve. They have also told us how difficult it can be to talk to residents about their sexuality, intimacy, and relationship needs, and how they would like more knowledge and skills to help them better support their residents.
We are therefore working with care home staff to improve the training and guidance that is available to support care home residents’ sexuality and intimacy needs.
As a first step, we are asking managers of all UK care homes to tell us what (if any) policies, training or support is currently available for staff in this area, and what support or resources they might find useful. To do this, we have put together a short online survey that is available at: https://apps.mhs.manchester.ac.uk/surveys/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=ml3K884M
The survey is completely anonymous, and should take no more than 5-10 minutes to complete. We plan to use the results of the survey to improve the training and support that is currently available for care home staff.
The work is being run by a research team led by myself, Dr Laura Brown, at the University of Manchester. Please do not hesitate to get in touch (laura.brown@manchester.ac.uk) if you have any questions about our work, or have additional thoughts that you would like to share.