"It's cruel" care homes worry no visits will impact residents' mental health

A Bradford care home is warning that continuing to stop safe visits for residents and their families could have a detrimental impact on their health and wellbeing.

Elmhurst Care Home had two weeks where they were allowed to carry out safe socially distanced visits one person at a time. But new Tier 2 restrictions have now caused them to halt all visits.

In all high risk areas, government guidance now states that visiting should be limited to exceptional circumstances only such as end of life.

Where visiting is restricted due to the local COVID alert level and if, after an individual assessment of the resident’s circumstances, it is determined that in-person visitation is not appropriate, care homes should support visiting in a virtual manner.

But Rachel Knowles, who is the assistant manager at Elmhurst, says she can see some residents almost starting to give up.

She said: "They know that something's missing out of their life. If they're having a couple of low days and you say, come on pick yourself up your daughter's coming on Saturday, that can help them turn it around.

"But now we can't say that to them.

"They're all elderly, we know that this is their last home and I just feel it's about quality of life now. Let their families be a part of that.

"We know it would only be one person per visit, we know it would be supervised and management could make sure it was safe.

"They're being robbed of being able to see each other and 6 months down the line it just feels cruel."

Guidance will be constantly reviewed, and councils are working to develop more detailed plans alongside government.