We encourage people from outside community to come inside
If other care homes want to find out what care will look like in 2025, they should pay a visit to Holdert in Emmen. Evert Nijman is regional manager of Treant Zorggroep (Treant Care Group) and below discusses the change programme that was carried out with Accezz at Holdert residential community care centre. Holdert is located in the heart of the city’s hustle and bustle, which could be a reason why it was chosen as the most welcoming of all the 2,900 care homes in the Netherlands.
Residents make chips with Dutch rapper Ali B
Evert Nijman starts by saying: “Our goal is to reduce the care dependency of clients to a minimum so they can retain their autonomy and independence for as long as possible. A strategy here is to encourage people from the outside community to come inside. Various clubs and associations where clients and people from outside are members hold their meetings here, and many non-residents stay around afterwards and volunteer. They make a valuable contribution by helping our regular staff. We also facilitate fitness because fit seniors with a rich social life have a more positive outlook and become less dependent on care. In one of our other locations, we even decided to help local self-employed professionals by providing a studio. We also like to bring in music on a regular basis. For instance, a symphony orchestra recently played here in our atrium. And during the opening of the new central square, rapper Ali B was performing. We later found him in the kitchen, where he spontaneously decided to make chips with the residents!”
Care in 2025
The regional manager continues: “With Accezz, we have given shape to a new way of working that suits us. Using the triangulation working method, involving client, staff member and Accezz, we wanted to find out how we could provide the best possible customised care. We eventually redesigned a life care plan based on client satisfaction. Starting from this plan, some ten district teams were established, each with its own routing for delivering care. As a result, customised care is now provided in a more efficient manner. Some clients can easily prepare their own sandwiches, for example.”
The inspiring manager adds: “Not only does this leave us with more time and money to spend on the training and coaching of staff and on iPads to use for the routes, but we also invest in other care-related matters, also referred to as business cases. At Holdert, business cases include: exercise, medication, hygiene, fall incidents and operational issues, such as reducing employee absenteeism and financial matters. We deal with these business cases by using the Accezz method. This approach enhances the professional competence of staff and their cost awareness, which translates into concrete gains.”
The method adopted with Accezz during the pilot at Holdert will be expanded to other Treant locations.
Fall incidents cost money
Examples of these business cases are at Holdert: exercise, medication, hygiene, fall incidentss, but also business management items such as reducing absenteeism and financial aspects. “This not only increases the competence of the employees, but also the consciousness for cost. And this awareness is translated into concrete actions. During the routes the fall incidents per client are followed with the iPad, along with his family. How can we organize the living situation in that way that the risk is smaller. Accezz has calculated in advance what the reactive coping with fall incidents cost. Of course, clients still fall, but in this way it costs us less money and more importantly; there is per fall incident minor injury.
From carehome to residential community care centre
Evert Nijman concludes: “Changes within society affect perceptions of healthcare. The concept of a residential care centre situated in the heart of a neighbourhood community led us to abandon the use of the term ‘care home’. Evidence shows that, for example, clients with cognitive problems, such as Alzheimer’s, enjoy life more when they can interact with others within a residential setting. Older people are naturally easily influenced by the prevailing system and culture within a home. We recognise that a good quality of life depends on autonomy and the ability to remain in control of our own life.”
