Families to be allowed back into care homes
FAMILIES will be allowed to visit loved ones in care homes again within weeks as Scotland slowly emerges from lockdown.
Ministers have confirmed two specified relatives or friends will be permitted to visit residents once a week.
The Scottish Government has confirmed visits will be allowed to care homes in early March – nearly a year after they were advised to close to visitors.
Two designated visitors will be able to visit, wearing PPE including face coverings.
They will also be ‘strongly encouraged’ to take a Covid test on site before they make contact with their loved ones.
More than 99.9 per cent of older care home residents and 92 per cent of staff have now been vaccinated with a first dose.
Care homes accounted for a smaller proportion of Covid deaths last week than at any time since March last year, prompting the decision to allow limited visits to begin again.
The Scottish Government has said it is ‘acutely conscious that continued restriction of contact for residents with relatives can contribute to loneliness and isolation and worsening physical and mental health’.
It believes ‘the bigger risk now is the continued separation of residents from loved ones’.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: ‘We must remain vigilant about the risks but with multiple layers of protection now in place, the balance is in favour of allowing visits.
‘Everyone, including visitors, has a responsibility to ensure that visits take place as safely as possible by continuing to follow safety advice.’
Donald MacAskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, said: ‘The Covid pandemic has presented frontline care home staff and managers with many challenges but undoubtedly the hardest has been keeping residents apart from family and friends.
‘We have now reached a very different place and with a range of Covid19 protections in place, including vaccination and testing, combined with the use of PPE and infection protection and control we are at a stage where we can re-introduce safer indoor visiting.’
It comes only weeks after a petition, started by Natasha Hamilton, whose mother Anne Duke, 63, has dementia and is in a home – gained 92,000 signatures.
The petition called for care home visits to be allowed again amid concerns that isolation was seriously affecting the wellbeing of residents.
Campaign group Care Home Relatives Scotland wanted ‘Anne’s Law’ to give care home residents the legal right to see at least one care-giving relative – regardless of lockdown or restriction levels.
Recent figures from National Records of Scotland showed that from March last year until the end of January, 14,273 residents have died inside Scottish care homes. The figures do not include those who died in hospitals.
Covid has been a factor in one in five of the deaths but relatives say many more have been caused by the isolation, with many residents ‘simply just giving up’.
There are about 36,000 people in Scottish care homes, including many young people with learning disabilities. Care Home Relatives Scotland says that many have been traumatised by the lack of family contact.
Cathie Russell of Care Home Relatives Scotland said: ‘The new guidance allows residents meaningful contact with their closest relatives and friends once more. The deepest ties of love are important and we can never thrive without them.’
‘We must remain vigilant’