Optimal Living found its Perfect Digital Software for Learning Disability
Optimal Living, a family-owned care provider with homes situated in Kent, Swindon and Bedfordshire, offers compassionate support to individuals in small groups that require a range of complex care needs. Their service users include people with varying levels of:
- Learning Disabilities
- Profound Autism
- Mental Health Challenges
- Associated Conditions such as non-verbal communication and other challenges requiring intensive support
As parents of a child with autism and complex care needs, they encountered a lack of suitable services. This ignited their passion to transform failing services, working closely with the CQC (Care Quality Commission) and local authorities. Link to Optimal Living website
Optimal Living aims to transform its services to become the leading provider in the locations they serve. Their service users live in groups of four to eight individuals, with dedicated caregivers providing personalised support. This ranges from shared support for those requiring less assistance to a two-to-one approach for those with more complex needs.
Chetna Satra, a co-founder of Optimal Living, and her team, are dedicated to providing exceptional care, encouraging them to explore the most suitable digital software for learning disability to support their mission.
The team previously relied on a different digital care management software. While it offered some functionality, it quickly became evident that it wasn't designed for the demanding needs of service users.
"We used another digital system in the past and it was unsuccessful. To be honest, there were lots of problems in terms of it being more centred around old people, but we are into learning disabilities and complex care, so it wasn't the right fit for us."
Chetna learned about Cura at an industry event, and the alignment between Cura and Optimal Living became clear – it’s a perfect match!
“Cura is made for learning disabilities and complex care.
It’s a perfect match, a match made in heaven!”
Learning Disability Software: Finding the right solution for transparency and accountability
Prior to implementing Cura, Optimal Living faced challenges that demanded a flexible and highly configurable software for learning disabilities and complex care situations that their previous platform lacked.
“We wanted more transparency within the services and more accountability. We wanted to know exactly who was writing what, and what they were writing. So, we could see it from the head office centrally. We wanted the homes to be safer to see straight away what was going on within all the services. And we get better outcomes for the people we support."
Unrivalled digital solution built for complex care settings
Attending the National Learning Disability and Autism Awards event, the founders were engaged in a conversation with a group. What began as a casual conversation turned into a discussion about Cura.
“We met some people at the National Learning Disability and Autism Awards, they were sitting at our table. They were telling us about how good Cura was and that got us talking about it throughout the night – about all the different things it can do that our old system wasn't doing, so that's why we moved across.”
Intrigued by the group's positive experiences, Optimal Living delved deeper into Cura's functionalities. They found Cura not only addressed the limitations of their previous platform, but that it is also a fully integrated system for learning difficulties that streamlines care planning, communication, and data management, specifically tailored to complex care settings.
According to Chetna, Cura stood out for several reasons:
Cura is suitable for people with profound learning disabilities/difficulties
Cura's learning disability software is highly configurable, allowing users to add photos and videos easily
Cura Systems team approach – helping them configure the system to be simple, user-friendly and bespoke to their unique needs
Optimal Living utilises these features on a daily basis:
Daily Report with user-definable categories - Detailed recording of daily care, reminders and alerts
Medication Management (Diabetic Care) - Manage insulin and blood sugar levels for diabetic service users
Food Charts - Meal planners and food allergens alerts monitor dietary intake
Fluid Balance - Track individual daily intake targets
Form Builder (Bedroom Cleaning Forms) - Create customisable forms to streamline cleaning tasks.
Personalised Behaviour Forms - Record and track behaviour patterns
Detailed Incident Reporting - Accurate and timely recording of even the most severe incidents
Other Functionalities - A vast array of functionalities yet to be explored
MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool) - Evaluate weight tracking and identify service users at risk of malnutrition
“It was more kind of bespoke, you could add videos and photos so easily. There are so many features, I don't even know where to start – there are loads of things!
And, what we also liked is the approach from the Cura Systems team. They kind of make it bespoke to us and there are a lot of things that are configurable so we can make the system as simple and user-friendly for our staff and care team as possible.”
Favourite Features in Cura
Behaviour Forms
“…Really like the Behaviour Forms. You can see at a glance exactly what's going on with the person, what they're thinking, what happened before, what happened during, what happened after. You can analyse your behaviours quite easily and then you can hopefully stop them from happening again.
Daily Report
...the Daily Records because you can filter that into the activities that someone's taken. Straight away you can see every day what someone's done over a period of time – like a month, six weeks, six months. You can look at how many times I've been to Shropshire. You can see what they've said. You can filter out mental health appointments and GP appointments. You can actually see a real sort of running record of that person in terms of what's happened over a period of time in each section. So that's helpful.”
Optimal Living plans to use these features in the future:
“What we've done with daily records is we've broken it down. We've got GPs, mental health and chiropodists, and we’ve broken it down into different kinds of appointments that could happen in a day. But what we haven't used is any kind of activity recording forms – we want to start using that. There's something called a good day and a bad day, about mood – we also want to start using that.
We want to use the data dashboard more in terms of the analysis of incidents, accidents, behaviours and falls. There's still quite a lot we have, we only just touch the surface.”
Straightforward Care Planning Solution
“Care planning for us is on autopilot. It’s very easy to set up and manage. You can review your care plans regularly, weekly, monthly, every six months, or yearly basis – whatever works best for you. You can also assign who you want to review those care plans.
So that’s really straightforward! We have incorporated risk assessments into our care plans, ensuring a more personalised approach.”/span>
Cura Support Team goes the extra mile
Attentive to your needs
“They are really good! They want to help you. They listen –they understand your needs.”
Respond promptly
"They will just jump on a call to guide you, even if it's for five or ten minutes to explain where you're going wrong.”
Ensures smooth transition for new staff
“We've had a lot of staff turnover. The team remained proactive in helping our new staff learn Cura.”
Support continues beyond onboarding
“They have helped us make videos for the rest of the team. So, we have made our own bespoke videos for each service on how to use the platform. It is personalised for our organisation.”
Optimal Living Evolves Alongside Cura
Optimal Living highlights Cura’s remarkable development from day 1:
User-Driven Development
“I really love the fact that Cura embraces customer feedback and empowers users to contribute to the development by implementing suggestions in future updates.
We feel like we are part of the development process working together to make a system that perfectly fits the people we support.”
User-Friendly Interface
"Its simple, straightforward design makes it easy for caregivers and staff members to learn and use. It's amazing... a brilliant software for learning disability and complex care situations."
Continuous Improvement
“Cura has changed dramatically over the past year and a half, demonstrating a commitment to ongoing development.
We have made a huge leap forward from where we started to where we are now!”
Unparalleled Customisation
“Cura allows for tailoring dashboards to each individual's specific needs, promoting personalised care. The system also allows for high levels of customisation to cater to service user’s needs.
Everyone's dashboard looks differently depending on if you're diabetic or obese, depending on whether you need a catheter or if you've got mental health issues. That's what I love about Cura. It's a person-centred platform.”
“Cura is a 100% simple to use, straightforward software for learning disability and complex care situations.”
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
More information about our Cookie Policy
- →
-
Book a demo
Simply fill in the form below:
- Call Click to Call
- Email Click to Email