Carers ‘ reaching crisis point’ as support cut during pandemic
FAMILIES who have acted as carers during the pandemic have reached crisis point as social distancing has led to lines of support being cut and testing rules have left them struggling to get their loved ones placed in care homes, a meeting has heard.
At its first meeting since lockdown, North Yorkshire County Council’s care scrutiny committee heard that relatives who were providing care in the home were becoming increasingly desperate, and six months after restrictions were introduced health and social care services in the county were seeing a sharp rise in serious mental health cases.
In May, the Institute of Fiscal Studies forecast that if the recession following the economic effects of the virus was similar to 2008, about half a million more people would experience a mental health difficulty over the next year. It also predicted that if there was a second wave of Covid- 19 and the economy was damaged further, the effects on mental health would be greater still, and last much longer.
The care scrutiny meeting was told it was the duration of the pandemic more than anything else that was impacting on the mental health of carers and their loved ones.
Councillor Caroline Goodrick said: “People who have been supporting relatives at home during the crisis have found it incredibly difficult to maintain that support without some help and that help has been limited in what we can give them. Some families are now reaching that crisis point, where the relative has to go into care.
“The biggest problem I have come across in getting a relative into care during this period is that residential homes are asking for a Covid test.
“For a test you don’t qualify on the Government website and you don’t qualify on the test and trace 119 number.
“You can’t get your relative, who is now in a desperate need of care, into care without a test.”
The authority’s corporate director of health and adult services, Richard Webb, said support such as day care, in which both the individual and their carers get a break, had been suspended because it was difficult to provide in a socially distanced way.