Healthwatch Wokingham Borough: Review of Extra Care Services

Healthwatch Wokingham Borough interviewed residents and staff in the Borough’s 3 existing Extra Care Schemes.

Healthwatch were interested in how living in Extra Care schemes enabled people to have a good quality of life, improved independence and decreased isolation and loneliness.

Grounded theory methodology was used to analyse interviews and the following themes have been identified; the importance of good design, managing expectations of what Extra Care schemes can and can’t provide, a tension existed between staff seeing Extra Care as independent living but residents wanting coordinated support to enable opportunities for social gatherings, the importance of having a diverse and varied range of activities available, the importance of transport links in ensuring residents do not get cut off from town and quality of care.

The intention is that the lessons learnt and recommendations made in this report are used to inform the 2 new Extra Care Schemes opening in the Borough late 2017.