Basic
Q 1: What is an Assisted Living Home? How is it different from an old age home?
A: Assisted Living (AL) homes are different than old age homes because here typically we take residents who need help with their daily activities, have nursing needs, have any chronic condition, or have dementia. AL homes have residents who need high levels of care & attention, it is a step below a nursing home.
Q 2: What is Epoch’s philosophy of care?
A: We follow a holistic, person centred approach in care. This means, we have individualised care plans for each residents depending on their diagnosis, health condition & engagement needs. Epoch believes in focusing on the person as much as the clinical condition. We use evidence based methods based on best practices & research in the industry. All of this is done in a home like environment.
Q 3: Are there any visiting hours?
A: We have an open door policy. We encourage family members to visit as often as possible. However we recommend that family members can observe instead of actively participating in routine activities - this will allow Epoch caregivers to build their own rapports with the residents.
Currently, in the Covid-19 conditions, you are welcome to visit your loved ones in the Epoch homes. But, the visits will have to booked through prior appointments. All the requisite safety protocols at the main gate will have to be followed by the visiting family members. Also, for the safety of all the residents, you can meet your loved ones in the assigned common spaces in the complex- in the lawns or the ground floor of the building. As a special requirement, if you want to see the room, then it will be through prior permission, and with the requisite PPE suits.
Q 4: What are the basic amenities provided in the room?
A: Each resident has an en-suite room with a private washroom as well as a private or shared balcony. Each room is furnished with a queen size bed and side tables, an easy chair and a stool. Additionally there is a LED TV with private cable connection, wardrobe, air conditioning & oil heaters.
Apart from the amenities in the room, the Epoch Homes have drawing room, activities room, terraces, garden area, where all the residents interact, celebrate special occasions etc.
The Epoch homes have been carefully selected and then thoughtfully revamped by our design team by installing hand rails, grab bars at all appropriate places, re-doing the rooms, common areas and washrooms keeping in mind the requirements and safety of the elderly residents.
Q 5: Are family members allowed to stay overnight with the resident?
A: This is typically not allowed and is against our policy keeping in mind resident welfare. It may be a cause of concern as we have observed that seniors esp with dementia may take time to readjust after a night stay by a family member. The stay may also disturb the routine of your loved one and other residents.
Currently, due to the Covid-19 conditions, this is not allowed
Care
Q 1: What does Epoch’s care include?
A: Epoch offers assisted living, dementia care, skilled nursing care, palliative care to elders in need of 24x7 care and assistance
Our care includes:
An individualised care plan
Emergency medical response procedures
24 x 7 attendant and personalised care; Care and nursing staff on day & night shift
Medication Management
Full ADL support (bathing, feeding, transferring, help with activities etc)
Home-cooked nutritious meals keeping individual restrictions/requirements in mind
Streamlined paperwork and reporting on each resident
Full housekeeping (including cleaning and laundry)
Daily activities including occupational therapy, music/ games and social events
Our Homes are managed under the expertise of a trained professional team and all staff are trained in dementia care
Q 2: What is the staffing? What kind of staff you have?
A: We have care staff who are certified and then trained in-house. Each house is run by a live-in Facility Manager who is also senior nurse with administrative experience. Each home is well staffed with passionate, trained and uniformed professionals. Our staffing ratios are almost 1:1 in each home sometimes even more. For eg: Frida house, which has about 13 residents has a total team strength of 25 including our Facility Manager and 3 Facility Nurses.
There is staffing round the clock, so all residents get 24X7 care apart from addressing emergencies.
We believe in empowering people on the ground and all our carers are involved in creating care plans for our residents
To read more about the team - Click here
Q 3: What is the staffing ratio?
A: We have a fairly high staffing ratio in each home as compared to industry standards. Our staffing ratios are almost 1:1 in each home sometimes even more. For eg: Frida house, which has about 13 residents has a total team strength of 25 including our Facility Manager and 3 Facility Nurses.
For individual residents, we have 3 levels of care: Basic, Medium and High. The staffing ratio is decided after we understand in detail the care requirement of the elderly.
Q 4: How well is the staff trained? What kind of training you provide?
A. We have a 15 day internal training program for all staff in elder care and dementia. All our nurses are registered nurses and care assistants come with a basic certification as GDAs (General Duty Assistant) .
Facility Nurses & Managers are required to undergo advanced training as well as ongoing training.
Additionally, Epoch Elder Care collaborates with Swedish Care International (SCI) as their Learning Partner. With this partnership, Epoch offers international standards of training to our Facility Managers and Nurses. http://www.epocheldercare.com/partners/
Each staff member, care and non-care, support or executive must undergo basic dementia care training which includes understanding of clinical picture, symptoms, communication and basic management strategies for challenging behaviours.
Each staff's performance is reviewed on a monthly basis.
Q 5: What are the type of activities planned at Epoch?
A: The activities are planned depending on each person’s abilities, current skill sets, past hobbies and presenting symptoms. There is a common activity calendar created in each home which has all the common daily activities as well as celebrations and festivities included in it. We also do personalised activities with each resident to give them a sense of purpose and fulfillment. To give you an example, we engage residents in:
Daily exercises and light stretching
Sensory and motor exercises
Music and dance sessions
Art and creative sessions
Simple games like tambola, quiz contests
Occupational Therapy for dementia twice a week
Volunteer visit, visits by school children
Movie screenings
Group lunches and celebrations
Outings (Both group and individual)
Celebrating all festivals and occasions- we just need a reason to celebrate!
Currently, due to the Covid-19 situation, certain activities are curtailed. Though Covid-19 has disrupted the routine of the elderly, as we move ahead, our aim is to try and keep the day-to-day lives of our residents and team as normal as possible, with recurrent indoor activities & celebrations.
Q 6: How is Dementia care done at Epoch? What is different about it?
A: Epoch has more than 8 years of relevant experience in India. Dementia care is very philosophy based. There are several approaches practiced globally.
The Epoch Dementia Care Plan focuses on the person as much as the clinical condition. The Epoch Dementia Care Plan manages symptoms of dementia through focusing on a resident’s emotional well being, provide holistic and person centred care tailored to the resident’s needs and to ensure quality of life.
Dementia is a neurological condition with psychiatric symptoms and very often it is a general practice to use medications like sedatives and anti psychotics to deal with it. At Epoch we try and use minimal medication to deal with behavioural changes and train all our staff to use non pharmacological approaches.
Epoch is helmed by Neha Sinha, a dementia specialist, clinical psychologist and trained in palliative care. Neha has gained international recognition for creating dementia services in India. Neha is one of the 100 selected worldwide participants to be invited for Dementia Forum X, under the patronage of Queen Silvia of Sweden. In this Forum, Neha has brought focus to the dementia related challenges in India, as a developing country.
The Epoch Care is based on evidence based global best practices.
Our Homes are managed under the expertise of a trained professional team and all staff are trained in dementia care
To read more click here
Q 7: Please explain emergency response?
A: We have all emergency protocols in place- medical emergency, fire, fall. The nursing and care team is well equipped to manage the emergency situations.
Q 8: Can I personalize the room and bring my own furniture?
A: We highly recommend you to bring in your stuff and personalize your space.
To read more click here
Food
Q 1: What kind of food you provide?
A: The food is customised as per requirement and medical restriction of the resident. We serve regular Indian meals in all our homes and it includes snacks, fruits, beverages, desserts, food festivals, special celebrations etc.
Q 2: What special meals are billed?
A: Any particular food/ fruit/ juices procured specifically for a resident (as a personal choice or because it is prescribed) outside of the regular menu is billed. Please note that we do quite a lot of customisation in the menu since each resident has specific needs (and this is not billed) but for eg if someone needs a specific fruit everyday then that is charged extra. In the menu, we serve non-veg food twice in a week, but, if someone would like to have it more than twice, then it is charged extra as it will be procured & prepared by the kitchen team only for that particular resident.