Families are reunited thanks to home ‘pods’
FOR 12 long weeks in lockdown Dorothy Bowen and her fellow care home residents have been unable to see their loved ones face-toface.
Instead, in a sorry substitute for the family contact which is so important for residents’ wellbeing, especially those with dementia, they have occasionally been able to wave through the window.
But this week that all changed, thanks to the ‘visiting pod’ - an inspired invention by Urmston Manor owner Martyn Davies.
Made from perspex, it creates a transparent virus-defying barrier between the residents and their visitors and enables them to talk face-to-face over a brew.
For Dorothy, 87, it’s been a revelation. She said: “Today I saw my sister and her husband and it was marvellous - a really wonderful thing.
“Before I’d only seen my sister twice through the window but today we had two cups of tea together and talked for ages.
“We couldn’t touch one another but we could really hear one another. It was lovely.”
Edna Ashton, 85, Dorothy’s sister who visited Dorothy with her husband Roy, said: “The pod will make such a difference. I’ve missed her so much.”
Martyn has set up a booking app so relatives can reserve a slot in the pod, which is kitted out with individual tea and coffee servings and is disinfected between visits.
He said: “One man couldn’t understand why his wife couldn’t visit and it wasn’t appropriate for her to come to the door because he attempts to leave and it upsets him. But yesterday she came for a visit and it was absolutely amazing, he was over the moon.”