Home makes space to welcome visitors again
A NEW purpose built area has allowed a care home to re-open its doors to visitors for the first time in nearly six months.
Barley View care home in Whitworth is now welcoming visits again having closed its doors on March 19.
The decision came as local restrictions were eased and a new, purposebuilt summer house is ready to facilitate safe visits.
It has been custom built to provide a welcoming and above all safe environment for relatives to enjoy face to face visits with loved ones.
Visitors and residents will be accommodated in separate partitioned sections of the summer house to minimise risk of infection. Rather than feeling clinical or sterile, it is hoped it will create a holiday home feel while keeping all parties safe.
Although many homes have introduced outdoor garden visits, which carry a lower risk or transmission, this was not deemed suitable for all residents at Barley View.
As half of the home’s residents are living with dementia, socially distanced outdoor visiting was simply not an option.
Instead, the safest option was to create a visiting space separate from the main home where visitors and residents would not share the same space but could easily see each other face to face.
Head of Care Jane Williamson said: “We hope to create a dignified, private ‘face-to-’face’ visit for each resident in a ‘home from home’ environment. Ideally, the resident and visitor after a time will no longer notice the glass partition dividing them and feel connected after such a long time apart. The new summer house will help protect residents from touch and aerial transmission of the virus and provide a massive boost to their emotional wellbeing and health.”
The home says their early decision to suspend all non-essential visits has paid off with no confirmed Covid cases among Barley View residents to date.