Audit of Residential Facilities, Final report - Division for Social Policy ...

one bed should be set aside for short-term care of abused older persons or older persons at risk.These beds should be subsidised.The guidelines indicate that short-term respite care for a maximum of one month per person orhome-based care should be available for the relief of family carers or in case of an acutecondition.Just over 62% homes (250) provided respite care to caregivers of older persons in thecommunity who need a temporary break from their task of caring for an older person. This meanshowever that at least 36% (145 homes) do not provide this service to caregivers in thecommunity.3.2.3 Policies and ProceduresThe norms and standards reflect a number of policies and procedures that are required in orderto assist the homes in having a standardised approach to admissions, statutory requirements,code of conduct for staff and caregivers to mention but a fewThe majority of the homes operated with a number of policies and procedures in place. Thesewere verified during the 2-day audit. In some instances there were homes that had very fewpolicies in place. In addition, there were sometimes big differences between management‟sknowledge of the existence of polices and those of the staff. Often these policies were verifiedduring the audit process which meant that there were definitely policies in place but staff were notinformed about it, or lacked sufficient knowledge about the policies.39 | D S D A u d i t o f R e s i d e n t i a l F a c i l i t i e s