Care Home Lockdown and Corona Virus

[mydiamondmum]

My mum's in a care home and they started testing for the first time last week. They were not able to carry out the test on mum as she was physically unable to accept the swab up her nose or even by her holding the swab. Apparently that was the case with a few residents.

Fortunately s;he is not showing any symptoms but much many more residents than usual passed away during the first few weeks of lockdown and before they started testing.

After testing 2 residents tested positive and the home has emailed saying that at this time they are not allowing anyone in accept for medical professionals. I found this a bit ironic as we have not been able to visit since the day before lockdown.

I like several of my fellow relatives at the home and I am sure a lot of people on this forum are out of our minds with worry about the affect of our loved ones being cut off from us.

Has anyone reading been given an idea of how long their particular care home intends to continue with this as not seeing loved ones can also have a devastating affect on their health and well being,

Surely they can't wait until there is a vaccine as that could take a year or longer and many of them won't make it. Has anyone reading been given an indication as when we may be able to support our loved ones again?

X

 

[Baker17]

I haven’t been able to visit my husband since the home locked down in the middle of March and I am worried about physical and mental effects of this on him.
They did try to do the test on him but it was the same as with your mother, they couldn’t get him to cooperate. In the home luckily there have been no cases up to present.
These past three weeks I have been going once a week to see him through the window, he is pleased to see me but can’t understand why I can’t go in and he started crying the last time, we weren’t sure if it was tears of joy at seeing me or tears of sadness, but, it was upsetting for me. I will continue to go though and hope that one day sooner rather than later it will be decided that’s its safe to visit.
There is no information on when this date will be unfortunately so all we can do is hope.

 

[mydiamondmum]

Sending you a hug Baker 17 .... please let this pass soon... it would be very distressing for my mother to see me out of the window without me coming in... lets just hope that now that they are (at last and not before time) testing the care homes once they the all clear and of being Covid free and we ourselves can get tested then hopefully they will start letting us in again. Lets hope X

 

[Baker17]

Sending you a hug Baker 17 .... please let this pass soon... it would be very distressing for my mother to see me out of the window without me coming in... lets just hope that now that they are (at last and not before time) testing the care homes once they the all clear and of being Covid free and we ourselves can get tested then hopefully they will start letting us in again. Lets hope X

Thanks for replying, I’ve just had call from the home saying that my husband has been refusing to take his medication for the last three days, he has to take medication for his heart as well as for his Alzheimer’s. The heart medication is because he had a cardiac arrest thirteen years ago they have spoken to the GP and they are deciding what can be done, there is also someone from the memory matters team going in to see him tomorrow to try different techniques. This person has been very good in the past in finding solutions so my fingers are crossed, it’s frustrating because when I could visit I was always able to persuade him.
They have done testing in the home both for staff and residents, but I know because the member of staff told me she’d refused because it would make her gag, you can probably guess what my reaction was. They also tried to test my husband but he wasn’t having any of it.
I’m just living on Hope at the moment, take care hugs and xxx’s

 

[Louise7]

Has anyone reading been given an idea of how long their particular care home intends to continue with this as not seeing loved ones can also have a devastating affect on their health and well being,

The care homes are following government advice so it will depend on when this changes. Currently the advice is that visits from family should continue to be restricted, although Scotland is planning for a phased resumption of visits but there is no specific time frame for this yet. See this thread:

Time to allow visitors into care homes?

Despite all the risks, for the welfare of people with dementia, is it time to think about how care homes might begin to allow visitors? Two powerful thought pieces I've read this weekend: https://scottishcare.org/finding-a-way-through-achieving-a-balance-between-risk-and-protection/ and this...

forum.alzheimers.org.uk

I’ve just had call from the home saying that my husband has been refusing to take his medication for the last three days, he has to take medication for his heart as well as for his Alzheimer’s. The heart medication is because he had a cardiac arrest thirteen years ago they have spoken to the GP and they are deciding what can be done, there is also someone from the memory matters team going in to see him tomorrow to try different techniques.

That's worrying for you, I hope the memory team can find some way to get him to take his medication.

 

[TNJJ]

Just to throw my twopenneth in.My daughter is a carer in a home and they have no idea when lock down will finish.She looked shattered tonight after a 12 hour shift wearing a mask etc.We live in Cornwall with one of the lowest rates of Covid 19.But to say my daughter and I were unamused when she told me that the care home has got agency down from London.The carer hasn't self isolated and come straight from London.There is no Covid 19 in the home.I'm hoping it stays that way!

 

[Bezzy1946]

Just to throw my twopenneth in.My daughter is a carer in a home and they have no idea when lock down will finish.She looked shattered tonight after a 12 hour shift wearing a mask etc.We live in Cornwall with one of the lowest rates of Covid 19.But to say my daughter and I were unamused when she told me that the care home has got agency down from London.The carer hasn't self isolated and come straight from London.There is no Covid 19 in the home.I'm hoping it stays that way!

My husband has been in care home since beginning of February. Of course haven’t seen him since lockdown. He went into hospital about three weeks ago with septic arthritis of his elbow and was tested positive for Covid19 which he must have caught from care home. I found out on talking to home that three of the carers had been off with virus. Luckily he didn’t show any symptoms of virus and came out of hospital last Thursday testing negative thank goodness. Spoke to him on FaceTime which didn’t go well he has dementia so is so confused with everything. I agree with you all that if this lockdown goes on for months and months some of our loved ones are not going to make it - so worrying.

 

[Quite contrary]

One of the care homes local to me is now allowing one visitor to have a socially distanced visit in the garden of the care home, which can be accessed without going into the building. That has been allowed since the government said we could meet with one person outside of our household. Maybe try asking if that could be possible to arrange?