Should care workers call residents 'sweetie' and 'love'?

Stephanie Kirkman Meikle, chief executive, Skills 4 Living Centre

Adult Social Care Inspector, Care Quality Commission

YES

A care home in Harrogate was criticised recently by the Care Quality Commission for using 'patronising' language to its residents who have learning disabilities, with staff referring to them as 'sweetie' and 'love'.

However, Stephanie Kirkman Meikle, chief executive for the charity Skills 4 Living Centre, which runs Brackenley care home, defended her staff, saying residents like the informal endearments.

Ms Kirkman Meikle said each resident’s individual care plan records how they like to be addressed. “We talk to every person, individually in a manner which meets their needs and suits their communication preferences. Certain people respond to certain pet names well and want us to use the terms of endearment appropriate to them.

“For example, one person likes staff who know him well to call him 'captain', but I wouldn't use this term. As a person who knows the gentleman from our adult education centre, I would call him by his christian name.”

You can read more on this at www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1571099/harrogate-care-home

NO

The CQC inspector criticised the care home staff for its endearments, saying 'However, throughout our visit we heard staff using terms such as ‘sweetie’, ‘darling’,‘handsome’ and 'love' when speaking to and about people who used the service.

'Although the language was meant to be friendly it could be regarded as demeaning and patronising.

'Relatives we spoke with told us they thought that staff usually spoke respectfully to people. However relatives also told us about other occasions which they had witnessed when staff had spoken inappropriately.'

Central to the CQC handbook ‘What standards you have a right to expect from your care home’ is the instruction that all communication with people using services must be respectful. Its inspection teams always seek feedback from residents and their relatives and take any accounts of reports of staff speaking inappropriately in any way very seriously.