Loneliness in Lockdown: Can care homes survive through the second wave?

In London’s worst affected borough for COVID cases, how is one care home dealing with connecting residents and their loved ones?

As Havering battles with the fastest growing rate of Covid-19 cases in London, a care home manager in the borough has explained how they are trying to keep vulnerable residents in touch with their relatives.

“We are told if residents are at end of life, their loved ones can come once a week, not that we would, unless we think the resident is going to die anytime soon and they can come in anytime. I think that’s terrible. That’s not nice. They need to spend time with them. Havering is the hotspot at the minute. Because, they’re so many care homes it’s very difficult and that’s the trouble.” – SARA LEWIS, CARE HOME MANAGER

I asked Manager Sara Lewis, from Ash Grove Residential Care Home in Billets Lane, Hornchurch how they are dealing with the pandemic and how they are trying to connect residents to their relatives. She stated, “We’re having problems with that… so we’re only doing facetime or WhatsApp for families; because the thing is, their families are quite old so a lot of them, – they don’t know what technology is. Unfortunately, they’ve probably only got mobiles and they know how to answer it and put it down, [but] they don’t actually know how to WhatsApp or anything.”

Ash Grove have tried numerous tactics to reunite residents and their relatives whilst following COVID guidelines, “So, we do [help them communicate] through a window. But obviously they [relatives] have to book an appointment because you can’t have everyone turn up at the same time…. It is quite difficult, because obviously some of our residents are quite deaf, and again some of the families- it’s not just the residents that are struggling but the families as well. So, we’ve bought an intercom that goes inside and families stand outside and they talk through the intercom so it’s louder and they can hear each other better.”

According to Age UK, Elderly people are more likely to suffer from social isolation compared to younger people and it is reported that there 1.2 million chronically lonely older people in the UK. This can be harmful as people who are deprived of social interactions are more likely to develop dementia, cardiovascular problems, have weaker immune systems and generally live shorter lives.

With Havering toughening lockdown restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus, Care Homes have resorted to their own creative ways to help residents and their loved ones connect without physically being near to each other. It seems like this will be the only way to combat loneliness in care homes and bring families together for the foreseeable future.