CARE HOME PIONEERS
Doctor on how residents are enjoying contact with relatives while staying Covid-free
Residents at a groundbreaking care home in the Borders are enjoying extensive contact with close relatives while remaining Covid-free.
Dr Jane Douglas, chief executive of award-winning Queen’s House in Kelso, vowed to make safe visiting a top priority after seeing residents become quiet and withdrawn during lockdown.
She is now leading the way in reuniting families after refusing to keep the doors closed and instead introducing new procedures, staff, equipment and training at the charity-run facility.
New Government guidelines were introduced in October, allowing elderly people left in isolation for seven months to finally hug and hold hands with loved ones.
But thousands of families have been left furious that homes have not implemented the updated procedures despite fears loneliness could claim more lives than coronavirus.
Jane said: “Care homes should be vibrant places but when we closed our doors a silence descended and I don’t believe that is the sort of place a care home should be.
“In March, we believed it was the right thing when we thought it would be over by the summer but as things went on we were seeing people become more withdrawn and I didn’t want that to continue.
“My concern, from a human rights point of view, was that if we continued to prevent people seeing loved ones, that would just be wrong. “I would have felt very upset and concerned if we had continued to do that in my care home. I felt quite strongly that we had to start visiting again.
“The challenge was to do that safely and I knew we had to put in the effort to develop new roles, introduce training and proper guidance for families, as well as having all the correct equipment and procedures in place.”
Jane is not only a qualified nurse with extensive experience working in the US and the UK but also has a degree in law and MSc in dementia studies.
Before becoming CEO at Queen’s House, she spent time at Scottish Borders Council as lead commissioner for older people.
She added: “We have tried to give all the contact that Government guidelines allow families to have and we have remained Covid-free
whi le doing that. The latest guidance allowed families to come in and assist people with eating, give them a cup of tea, hold their hand, brush their hair or give them a hug.
“We decided to embrace all of that immediately because we have relative meetings every month and we had a long chat and listened to them and we were in agreement that things had gone on too long. We are obviously concerned about Covid and we are not complacent in any way.
“Staff are audited four times a day, we do hand hygiene audits every day and we have a safety huddle every day.
“All employees are tested every week and some even more frequently after they were trained to self-test.
“The people who work here are very conscientious and worried about taking Covid-19 into the care home so they take personal responsibility.
“The first thing we had to do was look at the risks and work to understand them completely. If things are done properly, the risk is actually quite small from having relatives coming in, so long as we keep the footfall as low as possible.
“The principle we follow is that relatives are a part of our care home, not an afterthought.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is facing demands for new laws giving care home residents a legal right to contact with their loved ones.
Scottish Labour’s Monica Lennon has vowed to introduce new legislation at Holyrood if Sturgeon fails to take action to end a crisis of loneliness which experts have warned is taking a horrific toll on mental and physical health.
Visiting guidance for homes changed at the start of October after a Sunday Mail campaign.
But many homes are still not implementing the new rules despite 2587 residents having died in the last three months without family by their side.
More than 2000 people have died of coronavirus in care homes since the beginning of the pandemic in March.
Jane’s team sent out guidance and training material as well as a laminated card with “dos and don’ts” to relatives.
Family members are provided with a full-body gown so they can move freely around the room, gloves and personalised hand gel.
Jane added: “We have taken on staff in specific roles to allow visiting, so we have developed a concierge g reeter who organises all the visits.
“Relatives can book in online and he meets them and helps them with their PPE checks, then escorts them to the visit in the resident’s room or wherever it is taking place.
“I think the message is that this can be done safely and is something that is very important to both residents and their families.”
France and Germany introduced new lockdowns in recent weeks but both countries have vowed to retain family contact for care home residents. In Canada, new laws are being introduced to guarantee families access to homes as essential care givers.
Cathie Russell, of the Care Home Relatives Scotland group, said: “We believe visiting can be done safely and that risks need to be balanced.
“We are really concerned that care homes in areas where they are not under tighter lockdown restrictions are still not following the guidance and allowing proper visiting.
“We hope people are more aware now of the situation in care homes and the fact that many of these people do not have time to wait.”
We have embraced all of the latest guidance