As COVID-19 becomes a part of our everyday lives we have had to adapt to try and keep ourselves and our residents as safe as possible. Although there is talk of a vaccine we don’t know when it might be readily available, and if we have learnt anything over the last few months, it is that supplies to counter COVID cannot come quick enough. It really has been an extremely difficult time for us as a care home, trying to find the best possible way to tackle the pandemic. Obviously we followed all the guidelines set out by the various different bodies, but we felt this wasn’t enough for us, our residents are part of our family and we care deeply for each of them, so we researched and implemented numerous procedures and policies to protect our residents and our staff as far as we could.
- Reduce Risk
Firstly, we wanted to ensure that there was little chance of the virus reaching our homes. We shut our doors 3 weeks before the original lockdown and all non-essential visitors were cancelled. This was a difficult step for us to take as we have always had an open-door policy and love having visitors into our homes. Then we put in place as much varied entertainment as we could for the residents to try and compensate for the fact we would no longer be getting out and about and some of our regular visitors like Pet Pals would no longer be coming to see us. Our care team have been amazing, they have turned their hand to so many different roles – beauticians, hairdressers, spa therapists, dancers, singers, bakers, the list is endless, and it really shows just how caring our team is.
They sacrificed seeing their own family to ensure our residents were protected. We wanted as little contact between our team and the outside world as possible, we provided their essential shopping, so they didn’t need to visit the shops. We also provided lodgings so they could isolate and only be in contact with other staff members and the residents.
- Contingency Planning
We already had a number of contingency plans in place to include things like we would react to a flood, disasters, lack of services and (luckily) flu pandemics. We had also been working on a reinforced contingency plan in the months prior to the pandemic and this is why we were so able to fly into action the way that we did. We modified our flu pandemic contingency plan to a covid-19 pandemic plan and stuck to this until more information became available.
We then considered what would happen if COVID did get into our home. We created an isolation area for anyone displaying symptoms away from the other residents where they would be kept company by one member of the team. There was a programme in place for staff to provide 1:1 activities to prevent social isolation.
We also researched the best care we could give anyone who was suffering with COVID-19 and it seemed hydration was key so we briefed all staff on this and stocked up on jelly drops so we were ready should the worst happen.
- Maintaining Contact
The pressure on the team was immense, with longer hours and more procedures and cleaning than usual, plus the added stress of not being able to see their own families during their time off. However, we knew it was important to try and allow our residents to see their friends and family, so we invested in more ipads and we arranged as much video calling as we possibly could. We accepted gifts on the doorstep on special days, leaving them for 72 hours to decontaminate and we got the residents writing postcards to their loved ones. We also increased our postings on our private social media group so our residents’ loved ones could see we were making the best of it and still having lots of fun in the home. We know it wasn’t the same as seeing someone face to face, but it was the best we could do in the circumstances and our number one priority has and always will be the safety and health of our residents.
- Wellbeing
We followed the initial advice that we could find, this included vitamin D so we spent lots of time in the garden and the sun room, ate lots of leafy greens and ensured everyone had plenty to drink to keep hydrated. We also have a supply of jelly drops which the residents love. Lots of homemade cooking and activities were doubled, if you were in one of our care homes you probably wouldn’t even know a pandemic was going on (apart from the PPE) as everything was very ‘normal’ in the homes and everyone had a lovely summer.
When lockdown was lifted we joined up with peddle people again and they worked hard to put procedures into place that meant that they could take our residents out for rides into the community. This allowed families and friends to (socially distanced) join their families out in the community and experience normal activities. We were able to increase the amount of contact that families were able to have with their loved ones.
We also had family garden visits and installed a screen in the tea room for extra protection. We followed social distancing and all infection prevention measures to ensure the safety of the residents.
We invested in the Gateway. This was a machine we could put at the entrance to the home which would take a temperature before asking the visitor to proceed through. In the gateway the visitor is sprayed with an antiviral dry-mist providing full-body coverage to minimise the risk of a person carrying virus particles on their clothes.
The harmless dry-mist is used in healthcare, food safety, water treatment and general sanitation. It is made from hypochlorous, which is created naturally in the white blood cells of all humans and animals for healing, protection and to fight infections. It disables virus particles present on clothes or exposed skin on contact. We felt this would be an additional barrier and safety measure for our home that would make us feel more comfortable about inviting families to see their loved ones.
To help our staff manage and to ensure only one family were visiting at a time we developed an online booking system where families could book either video calling or a visit to the home, and just as we got it all up and running, we were put into lockdown again. This time we are more ready and prepared, we are just sad that the families won’t be visiting, however we now have the system ready for when the lockdown is lifted and families can continue to book video calling.