A Harrogate woman has sent a letter to the government urging ministers to change the care home restrictions which she says are harming her father’s mental health.
Judy Bass’s father lives in a care home and she hasn’t seen him since March.
Her father, who has dementia, needs constant care and she argues that his mental health is continuing to deteriorate without visits from his family.
Judy has joined ‘Rights for Residents’ – a group campaigning for a change to current restrictions. Their petition has over 125,000 signatures.
Judy, alongside others in the group, have sent letters to Helen Whateley, Minister for Care, saying:
“Current guidelines will not protect residents from the risks of contracting the virus but they will continue to heighten the risks of them dying from loneliness, depression and other damaging mental health conditions.”
Judy Bass and her brother would visit their dad every day before March. She said:
“I just feel like I’ve let him down. What’s he living for at the moment? Hardly anything. He will just give up.”
Judy and her father, a few years ago.
In the letter the group asks why the government cannot try to alleviate some of the distress placed on residents and their families.
“Why have the Government not found a more humane and nuanced solution that balances the risk of contracting Covid-19 against the devastating mental and physical deterioration we are witnessing?”
The letters ask the government to:
- Develop a detailed plan with clear guidelines to ensure care home residents are reunited with their families.
- Remove the burden of responsibility from individual care home managers to decide on visiting policies as they are frozen by the fear of litigation.
- Support care providers and home managers with tests for relatives and public liability indemnity for care home providers as it has done for the NHS.
The Prime Minister’s announcements suggest that restrictions could continue for a further six months. This would mean Judy wouldn’t see her father for a year.
She added:
“He may not have much time left, he is 99. I can’t get my brain around not seeing him for a year. I don’t think I am any more risk than his care workers who are still going out.”
Read more:
- County council bosses have said restrictions will have to be put on care homes following an increase in covid cases.
- Harrogate mum says testing system is “broken”.
