Enrich

Having successfully been partners in Project Retain, the focus for the PHA and Age NI shifted from hospitals to nursing homes.

Enrich was the title for this next step of the initiative and Age NI worked closely withe the PHA and a number of nursing homes across Northern Ireland. Enrich was a short training and awareness raising programme to improve the skills and confidence of staff in nursing and residential care homes. Its key objective was to enrich the lives of people living and working in residential care settings. Unfortunately due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 training delivery had to be cancelled as access to care homes was restricted. Below is an account of Enrich written in 2019.

Age NI, in partnership with the Public Health Agency (PHA), is delighted to be working on a new training programme to improve the skills and confidence of staff in nursing and residential care homes.

Enrich, which is funded by the PHA, and delivered by Age NI staff and volunteer peer facilitators, aims to promote the recruitment and retention of residential home, nursing and care staff. The programme also aims to influence the capability and competencies of the care workforce to improve the overall experience of older people.

It builds on the success of Project RETAIN, which involved similar training being delivered to nursing and healthcare staff in hospital settings.

Watch our Enrich video below.

Voice of older people

Enrich was co-produced by Age NI and older people and is based on what older people said matters most with regard to their care. There are three key areas covered by Enrich – Age Awareness, Communication and Dementia awareness.

Age NI is proud that older people’s voices are at the centre of developing training which aims to improve the experience of older people in care homes.

We know from delivering the training already that staff really value this perspective, and that it has given them a better understanding of how older people want to be cared for and supported.

What care homes say

Parkmanor Oaks Care Home, part of Mackiln Care Homes is one care home who have already undertaken the training.

Ciara Hawkins, Care Assistant Supervisor said:

“Our staff found the Enrich training really valuable, particularly as it gave us the opportunity to reflect on our practice, and what is important to older people. Having an older person involved in delivering the training was especially enlightening and added a lot of value.

Here are some more examples of what staff have said about Enrich.