In practice, care homes are becoming the new hospices, increasing emotional and psychological demands on staff. Julie Smyth explains how Springfield Healthcare Group at Wetherby Care & Retirement Village are setting a new standard for staff wellbeing
Across the UK, a profound shift is underway. Care homes are no longer simply places of living; statistical data illustrates how they are increasingly becoming the new hospices. Recent research from Nightingale Hammerson shows that 87.2 per cent of deaths of long-term care home residents in England now occur within the home itself. In one of their homes, 90 per cent of deaths were managed entirely in-house, supported by trained multidisciplinary teams, with 100 per cent of people in care homes dying with advance care plans in place.
This reflects a new national reality: care homes are now delivering the majority of end-of-life care and will increasingly do so as the population ages, frailty increases, and hospice capacity continues to contract.
At the same time, the 2025 UK Dementia Congress placed unprecedented emphasis on staff wellbeing, emotional labour and the psychological demands of supporting residents through decline, dementia and death. York St John University professor of emotional intelligence in care David Sheard captured the essence of this shift when he observed:
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