Information for Professionals

Kitnocks and South Africa Lodge are specialist services providing care exclusively to residents with complex needs. 

Staffing levels are high so as to reduce the need for 1:1. An in-house OT team and large activity team are part of our service offering.

Exclusions

We are not able to accept people detained under the Mental Health Act, other than Section 17 leave or 117 Aftercare.

Both services work primarily with older adults.

Every referral is assessed by the home clinical team and all risks and benefits of an admission are carefully considered before the offer of a placement can be made.

Provision & Inclusion

We provide care and nursing for adults with complex physical and mental health needs. Our clinical pathways are for those with a primary need related to their diagnosis of:

• Dementia
• Korsakoff’s Dementia
• Functional Mental Illness
• Huntington’s Disease

We are skilled in supporting people who present a challenge to other nursing and care environments. 

Examples of the types of support that we provide as part of our standard fee:

• Behaviour – support due to risk to self or others, comprehensive risk assessment and risk management plans, staff are PRISS trained, positive engagement plans (risk and incident reduction).
• Mobility – multiple falls requiring supervision during waking hours, requirement for specialist moving and handling equipment, i.e. that needs to be hired from a specialist company, range of movement and passive exercise assessments and plans (maximising opportunity for maintenance and rehabilitation), specialist seating assessments, repositioning assessment & care plans.
• Nutrition – regular choking which requires skilled support on a daily basis for all nutritional intake, enteral feeding, home cooked meal choices for all diet type.
• Continence – manual evacuation, catheter care, catheterisation (male, female & suprapubic), bowel care, continence assessments.
• Breathing – complex needs around non-invasive ventilation i.e. non-compliance.
• Medication – 24 hour monitoring required due to need for prn medications.
• ASC – low awareness/minimally responsive state
• Skin – complex dressing regime above and beyond routine care (clinical reasoning required), wound management, tissue viability training and tissue viability link nurse.
• Other – venepuncture, safeguarding, deprivation of liberties, mental capacity assessments, best interest meetings, MAPPA involvement, CPA involvement. Production of standard service reports & reports as required by stakeholders. Internal MDT case reviews. Frequent placement reviews.

Environment

Kitnocks House

The majority of Kitnocks House is single storey, one area of the house elevates to first and second storey. The home has four main areas, this enables the service to provide greater personalisation of care, stronger relationships, greater levels of privacy & dignity, greater levels of safety and maintain suitable staffing levels. Residents can access communal areas at Kitnocks House. Each of the ground floor areas can access the central garden, the garden is self-contained and well-loved providing the opportunity for all residents and their visitors to safely access and enjoy the outside space.

South Africa Lodge

South Africa Lodge is comprised of six lodges. This enables the service to provide greater personalisation of care, stronger relationships, greater levels of privacy & dignity, greater levels of safety and maintain suitable staffing levels. There is access to a safely fenced communal garden that is self-contained and well-loved, providing the opportunity for all residents and their visitors to safely access and enjoy the outside space.

1:1 Care

Kitnocks House and South Africa Lodge have high staffing levels so that 1:1 care is rarely required.

The most common time for 1:1 care is on admission (when the resident arrives with a 1:1 care package from their previous placement) but we aim to stop this as promptly as is safely achievable without compromising the care of our resident.

In exceptional cases, where 1:1 is required we charge a flat rate (day or night).