Summer 2022 saw temperatures reach 40.3°C for the first time, resulting in 1,256 excess deaths in people over the age of 65. To address the growing risk of heatwaves and the subsequent excess mortality, the UK government published two new national guidance documents aimed at social care managers: ‘Supporting vulnerable people before and during hot weather: social care managers’ and ‘Heat-Health Alert action card for health and social care providers’.
This study assessed how prepared English care homes are for heatwaves and examined whether national guidance is effective in aiding this preparedness through a thematic analysis and semi-structured interviews.
Researcher: Grace Soning
Grace recently graduated from a master’s degree in Global Environment and Sustainability from Birkbeck, University of London. She is a proud member of the Nightingale Hammerson team which inspired the research topic for her dissertation.
