A task group designed to come up with a solution for care home visits met for the first time this week amid county-wide restrictions.
North Yorkshire County Council restricted visits to care homes throughout October following an increase in coronavirus cases.
It comes as 12 homes in the Harrogate district have so far reported outbreaks of coronavirus since the start of the second wave of infections.
The group, which is made up of care home managers, residents, family members and dementia experts, met online for the first time and said a flexible approach with risk assessments for individual people was needed.
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Richard Webb, director of adult care at the county council, had promised that the restrictions would be reviewed at the end of the month.
He said the meeting was positive and that the group wanted to find solutions for visiting.
Mr Webb said:
“This was a really positive meeting and members of the task group welcomed the opportunity to tell their personal stories of the hardship and impact in terms of people’s mental well-being of stopping visits.
“Everybody at that meeting also acknowledged the challenges of protecting residents from covid but showed great focus on finding solutions to enable visits if at all possible beyond October.
“My own preference is for regular covid testing for designated visitors. However, given the current capacity issues with the national testing programme, it is difficult to guarantee this approach will be practicable at the present time.”
The authority said that care homes are still encouraged to allow window visits for residents so that relatives can still see their loved ones.
Homes are also being urged to use telephones and other technology to allow residents to contact relatives.
