Caring Times on the Road – Cramond Residence, Edinburgh

This month, I jumped on a plane and headed to Cramond Residence, to the North of Edinburgh, which has recently been recognised as the ‘Best Luxury Care Home’ at the Scottish Enterprise Awards 2021

Anna Dobbie visits Cramond Residence
Anna Dobbie visits Cramond Residence

Client liaison manager, Christian Daraio, took me on a tour of the opulent three-storey facility, while he explained Cramond Residence’s aim “to move away from the stereotype of nursing homes, and towards a luxury environment similar to a hotel”.

The purpose-built home is certainly luxurious; offering high-quality care for up to 74 residents (with 50 currently), Cramond Residence is split into nine small bubble group living facilities (or houses), named after famous areas of Edinburgh, each with up to nine bedrooms, a private lounge, dining and snug facilities.

The décor varies from house to house but there is an overarching nod to the highlands through tasteful tartans and artwork depicting local flora and fauna. Daraio joined the home in 2019, shortly after its opening in 2018.

Despite the challenges facing the care home sector, Cramond Residence is optimistic about the year ahead, with occupancy rates up 65% on this point last year and is set to hire additional staff to take its team to more than 100, in response to growing demand.

“After an unprecedented two years for the industry, we finally have positive momentum,” said Daraio. “The biggest obstacle we now have to providing care for more older people is recruitment. We’re hopeful that we can cut through the current workforce crisis by offering some of the highest salaries in Edinburgh, competitive terms and conditions and a great team environment”.

The home recently made two significant appointments as it prepares to expand its residential capacity, by promoting Ross Bijak from charge nurse to general manager, and helping Daniela Zampieri move up from deputy clinical care manager to deputy manager. The pair will play an integral role in the home’s expansion as it prepares to use accommodation on the top floor for the first time since opening its doors and to increase its specialist care offering for residents with dementia.

Christian Daraio, Cramond Residence
Christian Daraio, Cramond Residence

Rachel Murray is another exciting recent appointment. An inspiring woman with a passion for baking, Murray has Down’s Syndrome and has landed her first paid role as a food service assistant at Cramond Residence.

“Rachel is a total asset to the Cramond Residence team”, Daraio said “Her positive attitude brightens everyone’s day; I know that our head chef Patsy, in particular, is very appreciative of her and she’s a great help to the rest of our foodservice assistants too. As we look to grow our staff base, we’re hoping to give more people in a similar position the chance to progress in their career and learn new skills”.

Daraio felt that, when recruiting, it is important to deliver the message that Cramond is “a different” employer, providing a different service to residents and staff. “We do everything we can to keep staff entertained, as well as getting their knowledge up to speed, with relevant training to keep them engaged.”

Cramond has an intensive two-session interview process, asking questions on the first day followed by a more scenario-based interview. “They will have different scenarios that they need to respond to, then we will have a discussion and see how they react to searching questions.

“We want to create the best luxury environment for the residents, but also for staff members, so that’s why we are aiming at providing amongst the best pay rates in the market and we’re also providing a lot of support and training to the staff. We have two days of induction upon arrival, where all the different departments introduce themselves and go through what they do at Cramond, what to expect from working at Cramond, etc.” The staff also receive dementia and IT training. Cramond is currently advertising for lifestyle coordinators to help implement the extensive programme of resident activities. During the pandemic, residents embarked on a ‘Grand Tour of Scotland’, with distilleries, museums and attractions providing virtual tours and experiences, and recently the home has shown its commitment to helping nurture Scotland’s future rugby stars by taking out a year-long sponsorship with a local team: “We’ve already had one of our residents attend a complimentary whisky tasting and are looking to get those that are interested down to watch a few games in the better weather and experience the game-day atmosphere.”

The home is hoping to expand by recruiting two more lifestyle coordinators, to keep residents entertained through a programme of activities for the full month with additional activities, as required, like outings, arts and crafts, painting and musical performances.

“We can tailor activities based on the resident’s needs,” added Daraio. “We hold a resident council meeting monthly, where the residents can discuss anything that they’d like to see, if there are any changes and if anything has gone particularly well. It’s a safe space for residents to talk to somebody that’s not providing care to them directly.”

When recruiting for the lifestyle coordinator role, Daraio looks for someone that has worked with kids in schools or organised activities, perhaps in a holiday village: “It’s a whole different set of people that you’re looking through, compared to care staff. We look out for both the care experience and the activity side of things, and it’s just a fun role. We want charismatic characters who will engage well with the residents.”

The home is also currently looking for applications from qualified nurses, care assistants and catering assistants.

Speaking further about recruitment, Daraio said that there has been some adapting to do following Covid-19 and Brexit. “I think the lockdown has left many care workers exhausted.”

Daraio felt that the well-being of residents and staff had been and continues to be his main priority as they continue on the path back to normality: “We encourage all the staff to take up vaccinations and discuss the reason why and how we can support them.”

Reflecting on the start of the pandemic, Daraio said there were lots of guidelines issued by Health Protection Scotland with different sets for different care environments. “We were really lucky in having a strong management team, being supported also by our head office,” he added. “We would review all the guidance, and then modify our practice, finding a way to implement them safely.”

He felt that the design of the building has certainly helped the infection control side of things. “Because we are designed to have different houses, each house is completely self-sufficient, so staff can work from within it and the house can be shut. There are no communal toilets between residents or staff and the infection control measures and information that we delegated to the staff was top-notch.”

Looking at Cramond’s recent award win, Daraio credited it to residents’ well-being: “In many nursing homes, you find residents gathered in one lounge watching the same television. I think we wanted to move away as much as possible from the stereotype of nursing homes, and more towards a combination of a luxury environment like a hotel and the practicalities of a nursing home. Throughout your tour, you won’t have seen any evidence of clinical features; everything is quite hidden away.”

The inbuilt tech also means that medication administration is controlled digitally, enabling medications to be administered simultaneously in different houses. “Our care planning system is also completely digital and the family receive an indication on their smartphone.”

Daraio said, for him, the greatest satisfaction comes from seeing residents and family members, happy with the care they receive: “The population is increasing, and people are living longer with multiple medical conditions; going forward, it will just get worse. I think one of our key objectives in the future will be to continue to specialise in dementia care because this will probably be where the world will go.

“The bottom line is that we take all the steps that we can to make a difference in our residents’ lives.”


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