care home Archives - Page 7 of 8

My Year: Harrogate care leader describes ‘waves of despair’ in pandemic

As CEO of Harrogate Neighbours Housing Association, Sue Cawthray has led her team of carers through the toughest year of their professional lives. At the same time, they’ve all had their own difficulties to face, as she tells the Stray Ferret.

The last ten months have been challenging for all of us.

I have worked within social care for the last 27 years and it has been hit so hard – I have never experienced anything quite like it.

Personally, I have found it one of the most difficult times in my career having to be nimble in responses to the ever-changing goal posts and the potential impact, and aspiring to be a ‘mother figure’ to all my staff as well as a confidante.

I am a very positive person and my cup is always half full, but some days the negativity of our new normal lives has been mentally taxing. As there has been no respite, some days I have felt anger, frustration and huge waves of despair.

Being apart from my family has been the biggest challenge for me – my daughter isolated in the Cayman. You may say how wonderful to be in such a lovely place, however when you are forced into a situation and you were expecting to see each other, it has been tough – the choice was taken away.

I struggled with not being able to see my mum for nine months – she is 91 and lives in the south-east and was shielding. We managed two days in September but were unable to hug and be in the same house, and then we faced a Christmas without seeing each other, like so many others.

As a Mum and Grandma, not being able to see my grandchildren and children whenever I wanted to and to spend time together doing all the ‘normal’ things you do as a family has been so tough. Even when we were in a bubble and providing some childcare support, I have been constantly worried about my situation as a front line worker and how the virus is transmitted.

The hardest has been not being able to do the natural things of hugging friends and family, and not being able to console people when they are struggling with their own personal meltdown and, equally important, all the people we care for at work who have needed us more than ever.

Sue Cawthray has kept smiling for her staff and residents, despite the challenges this year

Constantly washing hands, wearing a mask, the use of hand sanitiser, cleaning your car down every time you get in it and not wanting to go to the supermarket or any shop… Having to wipe down everything you touch all the time and always being aware of staying a distance from people.

We’ve all had to learn new ways of communicating with each other and, whether we have used Zoom or any of the other virtual platforms, it’s been a fantastic way of staying in touch with people and given us all the opportunity to continue to work and meet together – but it is just not the same.

We have lost all the social aspect of life – whether it is going to the cinema, theatre, concerts, eating out, popping to the pub, or meeting friends and for me singing with my wonderful ‘Sing Bramham’.

Life is just not natural and all I ask for in 2021 is some return to life as we all knew it.

Harrogate care home resident enjoys first window pint

A Harrogate care home resident has been able to enjoy a pint with his son for the first time in months.

Colin Jameslund, who moved into The Manor House, Harrogate earlier this year, saw his son Phillip through a window this weekend.

The pair have always bonded over a drink and Colin knows his ale, having previously worked as a sales director at John Smith’s Brewery.

It has been a tough few months for the pair but Colin is optimistic about the future. He told the Stray Ferret today:

“My son lives in Chester but visits as often as he can. It was good to have a pint with him, we both had some Black Sheep beer.

“It’s not nice when I have to stay away from my family so being able to see them through a window means an awful lot to me.

“I do really feel for those who haven’t been able to have any visitors. I feel lucky here, the staff have been wonderful.”

Colin is in a high priority group for the new coronavirus vaccine but says he is happy to wait his turn.

Caryn Ferguson, the client liaison manager at The Manor House, told the Stray Ferret:

“It is really nice to see something so positive happening in the care home. It has been a tough time for everyone.”

The care home is trying to lift spirits this Christmas by putting up decorations and will even have pupils from Brackenfield School round to sing carols outside the building this Friday.

Many Harrogate district care homes yet to reopen to visitors

Many care homes in Harrogate have yet to recommence visits despite new government guidance.

The government issued new guidance after lockdown saying ‘care home managers are best placed to decide how visits should happen in their own setting in a way that meets the needs of their residents both individually and collectively’.

It also said it was issuing rapid covid tests to registered care homes during December for visitors to use. Each home should have enough to test up to two visitors per resident, twice a week by Christmas.

But right now many people are still unable to visit loved ones in the run-up to Christmas.

Judy Bass, from Harrogate, has only seen her father twice since March and one of those visits took place behind a window. Her father’s home is still not allowing indoor visits.

Ms Bass hoped the rapid test kits would allow her to visit but her father’s home has still not updated its guidance on visits.

She said:

“It is hard because I have no hope I will see him before Christmas and my dad loves this time of year. All the care home offers is window visits but I don’t want to be doing that because he will get upset.”

Judy said the care home probably found it “easier to say no” rather than go through the additional strain of testing, which would require visitors having to wait 30 minutes for results.

Elsewhere in Harrogate, other care homes are planning to allow visits.

MHA a charity that runs 83 care homes in England, including Berwick Grange in Harrogate, has said it will allow visits under the new guidelines. But it has yet to receive the testing kits from government.

Allowing up to two visitors, per resident, to be tested twice a week, would significantly increase staff workload.

MHA chief executive, Sam Monaghan, said:

“It is a great step forward that the government has listened to residents and their families kept apart during the pandemic and is making tests available. But to do so without providing the resources necessary is reckless.

“To carry out the volume of tests now required in care homes, we will need at least one more administrative staff member per home. We are talking about a considerable additional workload. The effect will be that frontline staff will be even further stretched.”

Do you have a loved one living in a care home? Are you happy to talk about how the pandemic has impacted your visits? Please get in touch with us via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

Bid to create 90-resident Harrogate care home

Plans have been submitted to demolish Tate House care home on Wetherby Road and replace it with a much larger care facility.

The sight-loss charity the Royal National Institute of Blind People sold the building for £1,650,000 in June.

It is now run as a joint venture by private care home providers Angela Swift Developments, which is based in Harrogate, and Burlington Care, which operates 31 care comes in Lincolnshire and northern England.

The home, which received a ‘good’ rating in its most recent Care Quality Commission report in 2018, currently accommodates up to 39 older residents.

The proposed new building would be three storeys tall and accommodate up to 90 people.

The building, opposite Harrogate Town’s football stadium, was built in 1930 and has had several extensions.

The planning application claims the proposed development will bring up to 70 new jobs to the local community, including nurses, support workers, management and admin staff.

An artist’s impression of the proposed new care home.

Wetherby Road has another care home, Berwick Grange, which is designed for people living with dementia.

Earlier this year, Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission to demolish the Greenfield Court care home on Wetherby Road, to eventually make way for 52 retirement apartments.

Harrogate Borough Council will consider the application in due course.

Bilton housing scheme criticised for lack of affordable homes

Harrogate Civic Society has said it is “very disappointed” a 19-home council development in the Bilton area of the town doesn’t include any affordable homes.

North Yorkshire County Council was granted permission last week to demolish its Woodfield House care home on Woodfield Square and build the new homes through its property company, Brierley Homes.

Henry Pankhurst, ex-chairman and current planning spokesman for the society, told the Stray Ferret he was not happy that all the new homes will be sold at market value with no provision for affordable properties, particularly as they are being built by a local authority.

He said:

“It’s very disappointing. I would have hoped North Yorkshire County Council would have recognised that Harrogate Borough Council has a difficulty in providing affordable housing. It’s an ideal location to have more affordable housing.”

The government defines affordable as homes sold at 80% of the market rate or homes for social rent.

Harrogate Borough Council policy requires 30% affordable on all brownfield developments.

However, for this scheme North Yorkshire County Council applied for a Vacant Building Credit — a government mechanism to encourage vacant properties back into use, which can be used to remove the provision for affordable housing.

Instead, it will make a financial contribution of £72,528 to Harrogate Borough Council, which granted planning permission.

Mr Pankurst called the Vacant Building Credit a “dreaded thing” and said North Yorkshire County Council should have done more to provide affordable housing, particularly as Harrogate Borough Council had identified a need to build 208 affordable homes in the district every year.

Prior to the decision to grant planning permission, a report from Harrogate Borough Council case officer Kate Broadbank also expressed “disappointed” in the lack of affordable housing in the scheme.

‘Excellent opportunity’

Brierley Homes was established in 2017 by North Yorkshire County Council. All profits are used to support frontline council services in the county.

A spokesperson for Brierley Homes said:

“Brierley Homes welcomes the planning approval to redevelop the former care home at Woodfield Square, Harrogate into 19 quality new homes.

“The regeneration and redevelopment of brownfield land is recognised by government as an important aspect of our national ambition to deliver much needed homes.

“The scheme will deliver a mixture of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes, with over 50% of the homes being 2 beds. This will offer first time buyers an excellent opportunity for modern and contemporary living within walking distance of the town centre of Harrogate.”

Photos bring the outside in for Knaresborough care home residents

A carer from Knaresborough has been overwhelmed with donations after calling on the local community to send photographs of the town in an effort to boost the morale of care home residents.

After being stuck inside for months some of the residents at The Manor House care home were feeling low. Carer, Alison Morgan, set out to ask local people to send their own photos to display around the home.

At first Alison was hoping for three canvases, one to hang on each floor of the home. So far she has been sent four canvases, one framed image and multiple digital images.

One of the donated canvas by Shirley Holden.

Alison said she has been overwhelmed by the response. She said:

“It all came from hearing some of the residents worrying they may never see the autumn colours or the viaduct again and it really hit me. The residents and staff feel like its never going to end, this will give them a boost.

“It’s been amazing. I’ve even had emails from people just sending their love to staff and residents.”

The hope is for all the pictures to be displayed in a social area for residents to look at before they’re placed throughout the home.

Another donated canvas by Paul Birtwhistle. Doreen and Amy Hodgson from the Old Station Cafe in Knaresborough contributed to the printing costs.

Alison hopes the effort can continue and the home can have more local photographers or amateur enthusiasts send some of their work as residents prepare for a “difficult” Christmas.

As a result of the project, Alison has been introduced to several members of the community wanting to continue to help the care home.

They are beginning to make plans for next year, if restrictions allow, including events such as a Spring fair and an outdoor concert for residents to enjoy.

To donate a canvas or send digital prints to the care home call 01423 797555.

Care home visit scheme branded ‘placatory’ by dementia patient’s daughter

A Harrogate woman campaigning for care home visits to be allowed said she does not see a government pilot scheme as a significant step forward.

Speaking to MPs this week, care minister Helen Whately said a pilot scheme to give relatives ‘key worker status’ – testing them for covid and allowing them to visit care homes – is being planned.

However, Judy Bass, whose 99-year-old father lives in a Harrogate care home, said more urgent progress needs to be made across the country for the sake of residents’ well-being.

“I don’t think it’s particularly a step forward. I think it’s placatory, because they have known about this for so long. It just needs to be put in place.

“Piloting it – I don’t even know how that would operate or if it would have any effect. They just need to put it in place. Relatives need to be given key worker status and tested and allowed to visit.”

Ms Bass also questioned whether the project would even be possible, given the struggle to deliver testing around the country.

Last month, introducing a ban on visitors across the county throughout October, North Yorkshire County Council’s head of health and adult services, Richard Webb, said although he was in favour of testing relatives to allow them to visit, the lack of tests available made that “unrealistic”.

Ms Bass and her brother are being allowed to visit their father this week for the first time – but only to see him through a window. As he has dementia, she is concerned the visit will distress him or, even worse, that he will not recognise his children.

“We will try and see how he copes with it, but he might not understand what’s going on. He might not know who I am, he might be exhausted by the whole thing. I go with trepidation.”

This week, care homes have reacted strongly to the suggestion that they could be asked to take in patients from hospitals who have tested positive for covid. Some councils have approached care homes to ask them to provide separate space for people recovering from the virus after being discharged, away from other residents.

Sam Monaghan, the chief executive of MHA, which runs care homes across the country including Berwick Grange in Harrogate, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was “highly concerned” about people with the virus being brought into close contact with vulnerable communities. Speaking about the logistics of accommodating them separately, he added:

“Unless you are talking about care home providers who have got buildings that aren’t yet occupied, it will be moving people out of their home, their room that they have got, if you are trying to cohort part of the home.

“You would be having to separate your staff group into those who are working with people without covid and those who are working with covid, and what the arrangements and protections for those staff at the heightened level of risk would be.

“And then there is the risk of transmission within that geographic space, even if you managed to create an artificial barrier between the two.”

Judy Bass and her father, a few years ago.

For Ms Bass, who has not seen her father since March, introducing covid patients to a care home while still preventing relatives who have tested negative for the virus from visiting, is beyond comprehension.

She told the Stray Ferret action needs to be taken quickly for the sake of residents who may not have long left to live and whose families are missing vital time with their loved ones.

“It’s going to be a hard enough winter for everybody, but to make things harder for us and our relatives is so unfair. We speak as often as we can, but conversation is very limited. He is stable, but it’s very difficult for me to tell how he is mentally without sitting with him and being with him to get those vibes.

“I don’t think we have seen a particular mental deterioration, but it’s just he shouldn’t be in that situation and we shouldn’t either.

“Ours is very minimal compared to a lot of people, but if my father has deteriorated and doesn’t know who we are, we’ve lost that little window of time with him that we had.”

Harrogate care home adopts door tech to save lives

A care home in Harrogate has adopted new technology in the fight to save lives from coronavirus this winter.

Vida Grange, which is a specialist dementia home in Pannal, has installed alcohol gel-secreting door pads to limit the spread of coronavirus among staff and residents.

The pads are designed to kill germs on doors, which can help to protect people from coronavirus. They could be particularly useful in care homes, where many residents struggle to remember the importance of hand hygiene.

Yorkshire company Surfaceskins, which created the pads last year, has seen a global spike in interest in the pads. But this is the first home in the Harrogate district to introduce them.

Adam Walker, Surfaceskins inventor, with James Rycroft, the managing director of Vida Healthcare, at Vida Grange in Pannal today. They are seen holding the pads.

At an event today at Vida Grange to mark the deal, James Rycroft, the managing director of Vida Healthcare, which owns Vida Grange, described the pads as a “welcome addition to our armoury”, He added:

“Sometimes people forget to use the alcohol gel but you can’t escape the Surfaceskins.

“The coronavirus pandemic took the world by surprise so we are trying to do all we can to protect our residents and staff.”

Mr Rycroft said new technologies and strict procedures were helping to protect residents.

Some staff at the care home have tested positive for coronavirus in recent weeks but, so far, none have passed the virus on.

Adam Walker, one of the inventors of Surfaceskins and a Harrogate resident, said:

“This product does not clean your hands but it is designed to keep itself sterile. We still need people to use gel dispensers and wash their hands. However, if you do that and use a dirty door you could still infect yourself. The Surfaceskin helps clean hands stay clean. It is a vital missing link.”

Mr Walker added the product was not a knee-jerk reaction to coronavirus. He said he came up with the idea about 10 years ago.

Harrogate care worker says visiting restrictions essential to protect residents

A care worker has said she backs measures to restrict visitors to care homes in the Harrogate district as they put the health of residents first.

Cheryl Allan, a care supervisor at a care home in Harrogate, said while she understands the concerns of relatives, limiting the spread of covid 19 among vulnerable people was vital.

North Yorkshire County Council introduced a seven-day restriction on visitors in September, before announcing it would be extended for the whole of October.

Mrs Allan said:

“It’s sad for the residents and their families. We were allowing residents to see their families – socially distanced – but there is new legislation and we have to follow that.

“The residents do understand, and their health and well-being is our main priority.”

Mrs Allan said the residents were good at supporting each other, along with the staff ensuring they stayed positive and did not feel lonely.

“They enjoy chatting and socialising with each other and with staff. We have a group who sit out every evening and chat and have a drink together.

“The doctors have been in touch and we’ve got plans in place for people who do suffer with mental health. We’re trying to keep their routines as similar to before lockdown as possible.”

Like many care homes, Mrs Allan said the residential home where she works – which she asked us not to name – has been using technology to enable residents to video call their families while they could not meet in person.

Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, has said care homes should be allowed visitors who can see relatives through a pane of glass. While one daughter of a patient with dementia told the Stray Ferret this can cause extra distress, Mrs Allen said it was a positive experience for some of the people she worked with.

One resident was able to speak to her daughter on the phone while waving through the windows, which she said benefitted both. For residents who are less confident with technology, Mrs Allan said this offered a good alternative.

However, she said suggestions of nominating one relative for each resident, offering them a weekly test and enabling them to visit would be impractical.

“I don’t think it would work. Staff are testing weekly and residents monthly. In between visitors being tested, you could pick it up and we wouldn’t know. It would work in some ways, but there’s a chance you could bring it in without realising.

“The residents’ health is the most important thing and we have to protect that.”

Harrogate woman sends minister letter pleading to see her father

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.”

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‘Excellent opportunity’

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