Stay together with interconnecting rooms at Gateford Lodge

Moving into a care home is a big decision at any time of life. When you have spent decades with the same person beside you, and one or both of you need more support, there is one more question to be answered. Can you stay together?

At Gateford Lodge care home in Worksop, you can. We have adjoining companion rooms, designed for residents who want to live together while each keeping a space of their own.

What is an interconnecting companion room?

Two bedrooms, each with its own en suite, joined by a private door between them.

During the day the door stays open and the two rooms work as one. At night you each have your own bed, your own bathroom and your own routine. It is somewhere between a shared double room and two separate rooms down the corridor from one another, and for a lot of couples it is the care home arrangement that actually suits them.

How do residents use the rooms?

Most couples who want to stay together do not need the same care, and that is entirely normal. Before you move in, we carry out an assessment for each of you, looking at health, mobility, the support already in place and how you prefer to do things, so we understand what each of you needs. One of you may need specialist dementia support while the other lives largely independently. Both are straightforward here, because your care plans are written separately. Your own routines and daily habits stay your own, our care team’s aim is to keep your independence and confidence intact.

One of you may need support during the night that would wake the other in a shared room. One of you may be up at six while the other would rather sleep until nine. You may have slept better in separate rooms for years already and see no reason to change that now.

This is where interconnecting rooms are the answer.

Having two rooms means neither of you gives anything up. You each have somewhere to see your own visitors, somewhere to shut the door on for an hour, and somewhere to fill with your own things.

Our wider guide to whether couples can move into a care home together covers the rest of it, including assessments, fees and what to ask when you visit.

Couples, partners and close friends

These rooms are not only for married couples. Partners take them, and so do close friends who have known each other for years and would rather not start again somewhere new on their own. If the two of you want to stay together, that is reason enough.

What is in each room?

Both rooms are fully furnished and ready to move into, with an adjustable electronic profiling bed, a wardrobe, a bedside cabinet and a desk. The bed adjusts at the head and the knees, which makes sitting up to read, eat or talk to a visitor much more comfortable.

Each room has its own private en suite with a shower, a toilet and a washbasin, its own Smart TV and its own temperature control, so neither of you has to put up with a room at somebody else’s preferred temperature.

You are very welcome to bring your own furniture and belongings as well. If there is a particular chair or chest of drawers you would struggle to be without, ask our home manager what the room can safely take.

Help at hand, day and night

There are call bells in both bedrooms and both en suites, so our team is never further than an arm’s reach away, whatever the hour. For a couple where one of you has been doing the caring at home, that is often the part that makes the biggest difference.

Life at Gateford Lodge care home

Gateford Lodge is a 70 bed home with a lounge, a dining room, a quiet lounge, a sports lounge, a hair salon, a balcony and a courtyard, so there is plenty of choice about where you spend the day and whether you spend it together.

Our lifestyles team runs activities throughout the week, from live music and fitness sessions to craft afternoons and trips out. Some of it you will want to do as a pair and some of it you will want to do on your own, and both are entirely normal here.

Care that can change as you do

We are registered for residential care, dementia care, respite care, day care and palliative care. For a couple, that range is worth more than it looks, because it means your care can change over the years without either of you having to move home.

We can talk through local authority funding, local authority funding with a third party top up, and NHS Continuing Healthcare, so do ask about your own situation rather than assuming the answer.

Come and see the rooms

The only way to know whether an arrangement like this suits the two of you is to stand in the rooms and see how they feel.

Visit us at Gateford Lodge Care Home, 1 Harewood Close, Gateford, Worksop, S81 8SY. Give the team a call or book a visit, and come together if you can.