Visiting with a Purpose: a framework for shaping better care home visits

By John Ramsay, Founder and CEO of Social-Ability

For people living in care settings, visits from loved ones can be a vital source of comfort and joy, however, due to a lack of the right support, these moments often fall short of their potential, leaving both visitors and residents feeling disconnected. This is especially true for those living with dementia, which accounts for 70% of UK care home residents. 

From my own experience, having grown up caring for my father who was diagnosed with early onset dementia, visits to a care home can feel awkward and directionless, with loved-ones often left feeling unsure as to how to engage in a way that’s meaningful.

This situation is only made more challenging by the lack of dementia-specific training on offer for care staff, which is not currently mandatory in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland. In fact, only 29% of care staff in England have received any form of dementia-specific training. As a result, most care staff lack effective, evidence-based guidance on how to educate visitors as to getting the most out of their visit.

There are almost 1 million people living with dementia in the UK, however, by 2040, the Alzheimer’s Society expects that to grow to over 1.4 million. Taking into account the families, friends and carers of those people, we’re talking about a significant proportion of the country’s population who are left without guidance and support when it comes to visiting and connecting with loved ones living in care.

So, how can the care sector adapt to improve visits, and therefore the quality of life, for people living with dementia?

Do government reforms offer hope for the future of care?

Care providers and families need practical strategies to ensure visits are meaningful and enriching for everyone involved. The government has recently announced sweeping reforms to the adult social care sector, including funding for an independent commission that will shape the future of a much-needed and highly-anticipated ‘National Care Service’.

Within these new reforms, the government has an opportunity to mandate dementia-specific training for all social care staff, part of which should outline how to facilitate better visits from loved ones. The need for this was exacerbated by the CQC’s 2024 State of Care report which highlighted staff’s lack of understanding of the specific needs of people with dementia as one of its main areas of concern.

However, with this commission now delayed until 2028 and therefore fails to address the urgent issues facing the adult social care system right now.

Given the delays to the commission, we cannot wait. The burden is on the current care ecosystem to come up with and adopt suitable solutions that will help provide adequate care for the country’s ever-growing population of people living with dementia. That’s where my concept of ‘Visiting with a Purpose’ comes in.

Transforming care home visits: a framework for meaningful connections

The idea behind ‘Visiting with a Purpose’ is to introduce a structured framework and training programme that provides this direction and gives purpose to visits.

This framework should include:

• Tactics to spark connections: various methods have been proven to improve engagements with people with dementia yet families are often not advised on how to spark connection. Photo albums, for example, can be very effective in reminding people living with dementia of memories, family members and beloved friends. This can help to create meaningful moments. Family videos and music can also be great tools for initiating connections. For example, when I used to visit my father, I would always take with me one of his favourite records to play, and hearing this is often when he seemed the most engaged and happy for me to be there.

• Activity recommendations: beyond simple methods to prompt engagement, care homes should think about how to integrate their activity schedules with residents’ visitation hours, helping family members to focus on what their loved one can (still) do. Activities, such as those offered by multisensory interactive light technology such as the Happiness Programme, are extremely accessible and can really help improve someone living with dementia’s physical and cognitive well-being, meaning they might be more likely to connect with the person who is visiting them. For those visiting, something like an interactive light projector or planned activity can also provide a kind of ‘purpose’ to people’s visits, giving direction and structure for everybody’s benefit – it’s something you can do together and removes any sense of awkwardness or unease.

• Gentle redirection: individuals with dementia might ask questions about loved ones who have passed or other aspects of their past, which can be incredibly challenging for both relatives and caregiver, who may struggle to respond in a mindful and conscientious way. Carers should pass on their strategies to families, helping them navigate these moments with compassion and understanding. Instead of repeatedly providing potentially distressing information to the person living with dementia, redirecting their attention to something more comforting can be effective. For example, if they ask about their mother, you might say, “Your mother was such a special person, and I know she loved you very much. Perhaps we could look at some photographs or engage in another enjoyable activity together?” This approach can help to shift focus while offering emotional reassurance.

• Visiting advice: visiting a care home doesn’t come with a manual yet it’s not an easy thing to do, and even harder to get right. There are so many factors that impact the success of a visit that people are often not educated about. For example, the time of day can significantly affect the success of a visit to someone living with dementia. People living with dementia are often at their best in the mornings, and can deteriorate from the afternoon onwards. Through mandatory dementia training and better resources to help facilitate visitors, carers can help visitors to align their visits with the times that work best for that resident.

The introduction of a comprehensive framework like ‘Visiting with a Purpose’ has the potential to transform the way we approach visiting people living with dementia in care homes. While we await government reforms, care homes and professionals have an opportunity to take steps that bring structure, meaning and joy to these very important interactions.

These small but impactful changes can not only improve the well-being of residents but also provide comfort and connection to their loved ones. By creating a positive framework that educates both carers and families on how to facilitate visits that are full of meaning and purpose, we can help shape a brighter future for everyone affected by dementia.