We're expecting the first heatwave of the year - are care homes ready?
Despite weather conditions that have felt more akin to March in recent days, we're suddenly on the precipice of a May bank holiday weekend heatwave if forecasts are correct. Which is wonderful news for most, but care home leaders will be checking their heatwave plans and hoping they have everything in place to cope and keep the vulnerable people they care for safe.
The UK Health Security Agency has this week warned that health threats – including from extreme weather due to climate change - are set to become 'more frequent, more complex and more interconnected', as it published its strategy for the next three years to 2029 aimed at protecting 'people and places most at risk.'
And at a recent panel on care facility extreme weather preparedness, experienced operators and health officials urged managers to ‘think beyond the thermometer’ when planning for heatwaves, stressing that a traditional, top‑down approach to temperature control in homes was not enough to keep people safe in rising temperatures.
Their warnings came against a back drop of Met Office warnings that the UK will experience hotter and drier summers as a result of climate change, and the fact that extreme weather conditions cause a disproportionate number of deaths among older people there were (of the higher than expected deaths during the four heat waves of 2024, the highest rates were among those aged over 75, according to government figures.
As always, we’ll be showcasing best practice via our digital and print channels at The Care Home Environment and want to hear from you. Examples I’ve heard so far range from shifting laundry and kitchen shifts away from peak heat times of the day, to using cooling products, such as pet cooling mats, for people who sit for long periods.
What’s your best hot-weather hack? How is the configuration of your homes adapting to meet the challenges of extreme weather? Let me know, and we’ll do our best to share how our care homes can be places where people thrive, whatever the weather.
