What happens if there is an accident?

It is one of the worries that sits quietly at the back of every family's mind when arranging care: what if something goes wrong? What if my loved one has a fall, or there is a mistake? It is a completely fair question, and one you should feel able to ask any care provider.

The honest truth is that accidents can, occasionally, happen, particularly in later life. No one can promise they never will. What truly matters is how a provider works to prevent them, how they respond when something does happen, and how they learn from it afterwards. Here is exactly how we handle all three at Edyn.

Prevention comes first

The best way to deal with an accident is to stop it happening in the first place. So before anything else, a great deal of what we do is designed to keep your loved one safe: thorough risk assessments, a personalised care plan, well-trained carers, safe moving and handling, and careful attention to the home environment. Much is quietly prevented this way. You can read more in our guide to the care assessment, where a lot of this groundwork begins. But should something ever happen, we are fully prepared.

The immediate response: your loved one first

If an accident does occur, your loved one's safety and wellbeing are the carer's absolute first priority. Our carers are trained to stay calm and act quickly: providing first aid, calling 999 or contacting the GP or NHS 111 where needed, and keeping your loved one safe, comfortable and reassured throughout. In those first crucial moments, having a trained professional right there in the home makes an enormous difference.

Keeping you informed

You will not be left in the dark. As soon as the immediate situation is under control, we make sure you, as family, are told promptly what has happened. We know how much you want to be kept informed about someone you love, and we treat that as a given, not an afterthought.

A prompt and thorough review

Once your loved one is safe and you have been informed, the carer reports the event to our team, and one of our Care Managers reviews it quickly, within 24 hours. We look carefully at what happened and why, and we put clear actions in place, such as updating the care plan or risk assessment, to reduce the chance of anything similar happening again. Every event is taken seriously and properly examined, never brushed aside.

Honesty, always

This is something we feel strongly about. If something goes wrong and causes harm, or could have, we believe you deserve complete openness. We will tell you honestly and promptly what happened, offer a sincere apology, explain clearly what we know, and set out what we are doing about it. This is not simply good manners. It is a duty we hold ourselves to, and a promise we make to every family who trusts us.

Learning from everything, even near misses

We do not wait for harm to occur before we act. We take even "near misses" seriously, a trip that did not quite become a fall, for example, because learning from these is often how an accident is prevented altogether. Every event, however small, feeds into improving our care, our training and our safety, which means we are always learning and always getting better. It is a big part of how we keep our standards high.

When a concern goes further

If an event ever raises any concern about your loved one's safety or wellbeing, we treat it with the utmost seriousness and escalate it appropriately, working with the relevant authorities where needed. We also meet all of our legal responsibilities to report serious events to the proper bodies. Nothing matters more to us than the safety of the people in our care.

Safe, accountable, caring hands

Accidents are, thankfully, rare. And everything we do is designed to prevent them, to respond swiftly and skilfully if they happen, and to learn so that they are less likely to happen again. It means that even in the difficult moments, your loved one, and you, are in safe, honest and accountable hands.

If you would like to talk through how we keep the people we care for safe, we would be glad to help.

Book a free care advice call, or give us a ring on 020 3970 9900. We are always happy to answer any question, however small.