DELIVERING POSITIVE CARE IN NURSING-HOMES

This article describes a study of staff activity in six nursing homes for the elderly mentally ill. Three homes formed a Department of Healt h Special Medical Development (SMD), were highly resourced in terms of staff, and aimed to provide a good care environment and a high qualit y of life for the residents. The other three homes were included for c omparison. The extra resources available within the SMD homes were lar gely used for routine care, such as resident hygiene, rather than 'pos itive', life - enhancing care, such as social interaction and group ac tivities. The failure to deliver positive care in line with increases in staff numbers cannot easily be explained. However, the indication i s that it is not a result of substituting untrained for trained staff, but is rather related to the way staff resources are deployed.