Looking after our care home residents during the pandemic
Looking after our care home residents during the pandemic has been a challenge. The current Covid-19 Pandemic has caused enormous disruption to everyday life, and has had significant ramifications for care homes in particular. Suddenly the way we look after our residents has changed dramatically and here at Birchwood House we have done everything we can to deal with this, both keeping our residents safe and as active and entertained as possible as we know how important this is for their mental health and wellbeing.
So what are the specific steps we have been taking?
Communication
Many of our residents would have very regular visits from friends and family which was an enormous comfort to them. Very early on, before the lockdown even began, we stopped friends and family from visiting and tightly controlled who came in and out of our care home. This has not been easy but has been an essential step in controlling the virus.
We recognise the importance of residents being able to communicate with the outside world and have been using the powers of technology to help them stay in touch with their loved ones, with regular face time and video calls. This helps enormously with the spirits of both our residents and their families.
Social Distancing
Social distancing is a word many of us would have never anticipated playing such an important part of our lives 12 months ago. With such clear advice that this is how to prevent the spread of the virus, we always make sure our residents maintain the 2m social distancing rules and keep contact with staff to an absolute minimum. Nobody knows how long social distancing rules will be in force for but we will be doing our best to adhere to them for as long as they are!
Celebrating
We love to celebrate at Birchwood House – whether a birthday celebration, Christmas or even Valentine’s Day, our residents enjoy their fair share of cake and a party atmosphere. The social distancing measures make this a lot harder but wherever possible we do our best to celebrate these special occasions. So even if we’re not able to host our annual summer party, or take residents out on trips, we will still celebrate with birthday cake and fly flags for VE day, doing what we can to keep the spirit of our residents high!
Making use of our gardens
We have spoken before about our gardens being one of the benefits of our ‘home from home’ care home and we believe that this has really come into its own during the current lockdown period. With residents no longer being able to take trips out of the care home, having beautiful gardens with bluebells just blooming combined with the weather, we have been able to get our residents safely out of their rooms and enjoying the fresh air and beautiful gardens – vital for their health and wellbeing.
PPE
Importantly our staff have the required PPE equipment when looking after our residents – essential for keeping both them and our residents protected.
Nobody knows what direction this virus is going to go, but we’re doing everything we can to keep our residents safe and well, and will continue to adjust how we look after our residents in line with ever changing Government guidelines.
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