Don’t cut families off from elderly in care

Families must be able to visit their loved ones in care homes this winter to help keep them alive, campaigners urged last night.

Care homes were locked down when the epidemic struck in march and, eight months on, bans on indoor visits are still in place around the country.

a coalition of over 60 organisations, led by the National Care Forum, has sent an open letter to Health secretary matt Hancock warning the ban is ‘intrinsically harmful’ and is causing ‘extreme anguish’.

They are calling for each resident to have at least one relative or friend designated as a key visitor with regular testing to enable face-to-face meetings.

experts have warned that the lack of contact with loved ones is a matter of life and death for vulnerable care home residents, with isolation and loneliness causing their health to deteriorate.

While newly published legislation makes clear that going to see relatives in care homes or hospital is a valid reason to travel, ending fears that such journeys risked prosecution. Fiona Carragher, of the alzheimer’s society, said: ‘We know that family carers keep people with dementia in care homes tethered to the world and it’s no exaggeration to say they are keeping them alive.’

The letter, which has been signed by academics and charities such as age UK, said that as the Government finalises regulations for the national lockdown, it must be the ‘default position’ that care homes are open for visiting.

it states: ‘Care homes must be supported to enable visits by families and loved ones, now and in the future.

‘We know that isolation caused by restrictions on visits from loved ones is intrinsically harmful and we have heard over and again the extreme anguish that this is causing.’ mike Padgham, chairman of the independent Care Group, who signed the letter, said: ‘People can’t wait much longer, particularly people with dementia, who are sometimes forgetting who their loved ones are.’

The Department of Health said it had introduced control measures to enable visits to continue safely where possible.