Becoming a Care Home Owner

With people living for longer, the demand for care homes in the future will soar. Elderly people are often unable to look after themselves as they get older and whilst family and friends can help, it calls for a huge amount of responsibility to be taken up.

For those considering setting up their own care facility there are two categories that split the elderly care industry, nursing homes and residential care homes. Nursing homes are like private hospitals for elderly residents that require a high level of care. If opening this kind of facility, there needs to be managers and nursing staff with highly advanced levels of medical care and training.

Residential care homes are old people's homes, which provide accommodation for elderly people who may be unable to do everything for themselves. Residents such as these are still able to enjoy a degree of independence. Staff at such facilities are qualified carers whose level of training do not need to be as advanced as those in nursing homes.

The care industry is open to people from a wide range of backgrounds, although those with medical and care experience obviously feature strongly in the sector. There is more to owning a care home than your background, financial situation and ensuring you have all of the necessary care home supplies. You also need to have a certain type of personality.

You have to want to care for the elderly, there's no point opening a care facility if you yourself do not care. You need good management skills and must be able to organise staff and create a good working attitude and environment which will rub of on your residents. But remember, it is not a nine to five industry. If there's an emergency you may be contacted in the early hours of the morning- for example, if a client is ill.

However, caring alone isn't enough - it's still a business and it is worth bearing in mind that you will be inspected on a regular basis and there will also be unannounced inspections, which can be at any time of day or night.