
To safely reunite our residents with friends and family is a dilemma facing all care home providers.
Allowing visits is a fine balance between the benefits for residents and their loved ones, against the risk of visitors introducing infection into the care home or spreading infection from the care home to the community. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a major threat to our residents, and a risk to visitors and staff, not being able to receive visitors and reunite residents with loved ones has been one of the hardest aspects since the beginning of the pandemic.
Keeping our residents safe from COVID-19 is our number one priority. However for many living in residential care, experiencing ‘in person’ visits is also of great importance.
When considering a resident’s physical, emotional, social, and spiritual support needs, an absence of visits can adversely, affect a person’s overall health and wellbeing. This is especially true for those people in care who have communication difficulties and for whom ‘virtual visits’, through telephones and video calls, pose some challenges.
Re-Opening the care home
As the providers of care to your loved ones we, as managers and staff, face a difficult decision when deciding whether the home can reopen to visitors. Numerous factors need to be taken into consideration, including:
- The local situation – including any local restrictions
- Our status as a home (recent outbreaks, virus test results etc.)
- Staffing levels and support available for staff
- The measures in place to reduce risks
- The benefits of visits to residents
Obviously visiting restrictions are still in place locally and we are not allowed to open the home even if we wanted to but that does not stop us preparing for when we can restart them! The exciting news is we have commissioned a bespoke “visiting pod” which will allow us to facilitate face to face visits without PPE etc when guidance changes.
Visiting without PPE
The pod will be divided into two areas by a glass panel with your loved ones entering one end of the pod and you entering from the other end. The pod will be light and airy and will heated and furnished to a high standard and hand sanitising stations will be located at both entrances to the pod. A hearing loop and sound system will be installed to allow you to freely talk to your loved one without the need to shout! In additional an Ozone sanitising unit has been purchased which will allow the pod to be fully sanitised between each visit to give you the peace of mind that the pod is infection free.
The pod has been designed to facilitate visiting without the use of PPE for you and your loved ones. Any staff that will be accompanying a resident we still be wearing the appropriate PPE throughout the visit.
The pod is currently being assembled off site and will be transported and installed at the Bakewells week commencing 5th October 2020 and will hopefully be finished and ready for use (should the restrictions be lifted) for the week commencing 21st October 2020.
Bookable visiting pod
There will be 4 pre bookable slots of 30 minutes offered per day with a member of staff accompanying those that require assistance. The slots will be available at 1030am, 1130am, 230pm and 330pm. The spacing of the slots will allow the sanitisation of the pod between each visit and also not disturb protected periods such as mealtimes.
Below are a couple of pictures of the “pod” starting its “life” at the manufactures based in Bolton. We are very excited about our new pod and look forward to it arriving and visits to recommence, when allowed.
Please rest assured that we are doing all we can you keep your family members safe and well and have a great team keeping their spirits up and facilitating contact via Zoom, FaceTime which will of course also continue if that is your preferred contact preference once the pod opens.
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