Toddlers and young children are not the only ones who are most vulnerable to everyday safety risks, such as an open door. Elderly people too are very vulnerable, which is why residential homes, such as the MHA* Care Group’s Aughton Park Care Home in Lancashire, are not taking any chances where the Health and Safety of their residents is concerned…

When we met with Michelle Morris, the Manager of Aughton Park Care Home in Ormskirk, Lancashire, Michelle was keen to stress just how important it is to protect those most vulnerable from seemingly safe doors.

Caring for People Living with Dementia

Michelle explained that a nearby residential home in Southport had experienced an accident, not involving a resident but a member of staff, who actually lost his finger tip in the door frame. Michelle said: “When I visited the home, the Manager was having Fingershield devices fitted and I thought it was a really good idea and thought they would be ideal for the Dementia Unit at Aughton Park.

“Obviously my care home is enormous and I couldn’t afford to put them on every door, so I protected the doors within the unit where I thought they were needed the most.”

As Michelle pointed out, people with dementia can often be unaware of their environment and are therefore not as conscious of potential dangers as other people, which made the need to protect the doors all the more urgent.

Raising the Alarm for Door Safety

Interestingly, before the care home installed the Fingershield devices, measures that were actually in place for the purposes of fire safety highlighted the need for some form of door protection to eradicate the risk of finger trapping. Michelle explained: “A lot of the doors that we have are connected to the fire alarm, which means that when the alarm goes off, the doors close automatically. So if a resident were standing with their fingers in the door frame and the doors were triggered shut, they wouldn’t have the ability or the reflex to think and jump back, and we really don’t want any accidents of that nature taking place. This was another reason why I considered it important to install the Fingershield devices.”

Aesthetically speaking, Michelle said: “The devices fit very well with the care home’s décor in that I’ve got white on the white doors and brown on the brown doors, so you don’t even notice they’re actually there.”

As a final word, Michelle said: “Having the Fingershields installed has meant that we haven’t had any finger-trapping incidents and the risk to residents is 100% eliminated, which is particularly important for those who are unaware of their surroundings.” Together with a product life expectancy of 20 years and the offer of an automatic free ten-year warranty, the cost of installing Fingershield is relatively very low.

Just like schools and nurseries, residential homes can often be a hot spot for finger-trapping accidents. This is why nursing homes, such as Aughton Park Care Home, are more and more deciding that it makes no sense whatsoever to remain exposed to this type of accident.

*Methodist Homes Association

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