Supporting care home staff and residents 

There has been so much in the news about the crisis in care homes during this virus. It's heartbreaking to hear about residents separated from loved ones, high numbers of deaths of residents and staff working with inadequate supplies of PPE and other resources, as well as the mental health pressures of working on the front line. 

Here are some of the ways Embracing Age has been working to support staff and residents: 

• 21 tablet devices donated - when care homes went into lockdown, we wanted to alleviate some of the heartache for residents and loved ones no longer able to spend time together, and for our faithful team of volunteers unable to provide companionship in their usual way.
  
  We successfully applied to RPLC for funding to buy android tablets for care homes across the Borough of Richmond, and set them up with video calling apps and online games like Words with Friends to enable residents to stay connected with their family and friends.
  
  One care home manager told us “residents have been able to communicate with their loved ones, and communicate and play games every Friday with the children at a  local nursery.” 
  
  Another home has used their tablet to “communicate visually with social workers and do medications reviews with the GP. It has been a great asset to have in these difficult times.”  
  
  The tablets have also provided an opportunity for group use, with one home using it for "reminiscing, watching the history of places where residents lived on You Tube", and others using it to stream local church services for residents to join in with. 
  
  As one manager said, it is clear that these tablets “will continue to play a big part in the residents lives long after these difficult times have passed.” 

• 900 “Kindness to Carers” goody bags - we prepared and delivered 900 goody bags to staff in care homes across the Borough of Richmond to thank them for all their hard work. Thank you to the local churches that sponsored the bags and to all the volunteers who helped to fill them and write a handwritten thank you note for each recipient. The bags were very well received, with one carer saying “thank you so much for your thoughtful, caring gift. It is perfect. Vaseline for the dry lips after a shift wearing a mask, hand and nail cream for the hands that are repeatedly washed and the sweet treats, always appreciated. I lit the scented candle last night and relaxed. Your prayers and the message card mean so much. Bless you all and thank you."

• Volunteers maintaining contact with residents - we have been heartened to hear that the majority of our volunteers have found new ways to keep in touch with the care home residents they usually visit. This has ranged from video or telephone calls, sending cards and letters, playing “Words With Friends” via our donated tablets and delivering plants or sweet treats. We’re very grateful to everyone that has kept in touch with residents and helped them to feel connected to and valued by their community. If you’ve been connecting with residents during lockdown, we love to you to send us your stories.

• 8,000 masks for care homes - speaking to local care home staff,
  one of their worries has been sourcing adequate PPE, both in terms of escalating cost and insufficient supply. We wanted to alleviate some of that stress so that they could focus on caring for their residents. We successfully applied for a grant of £5,000 from City Bridge Trust and bought 8,000 medical grade masks, which have been distributed to care homes across the Borough of Richmond. 

• Connecting Care Homes to Scrub Hubs - in addition to helping source masks, we have also been connecting care homes with their local “Scrub Hubs” that have popped up to supply scrubs and uniform laundry bags for those working in care homes.
  Receiving a donation of these gowns from Tina, one care home manager said they “give the staff the confidence needed to support the residents. They are able to engage with the Covid 19 positive residents in a loving, compassionate, respectful and dignified manner. Communicating with older people living with dementia is in the form of touching and hugging them. The wearing of the gowns and the other PPE like mask, visor, gloves etc. has made this possible. The availability of the gowns has also made it possible for families to spend quality time with their loved ones who are receiving End of Life Care. The wearing of the gown gives them the confidence and the protection that they need.” 

National Care Home Friends update

Our National Care Home Friends volunteers have also been working hard to support their local care home in new ways. 

The team in Billingshurst have maintained contact with residents in the care home through regular letters and phone calls, as well as reaching out to the Activities Coordinator and Manager. They have also been busy with bigger projects, including sending individual named Easter cards to residents with boxes of chocolates, and organising their own goody bags through their church - collecting enough for 55 care bags for the staff with hand cream, other toiletries, tissues and chocolate. Their new project is collecting magazines for residents; the first bundle went in with some chocolates, and the next one will go with some flowers. 

One of our newest projects, in East Molesey, has also quickly adapted to the situation by keeping in touch through letter writing - one resident grew up in Germany and has advanced Dementia; her volunteer has been really creative by starting and ending his letters in German and the staff say she is really enjoying having the letters read to her. The care home asked if anyone at the church could provide plants or cuttings of scented herbs for the residents to dig into a raised planter as a new therapeutic, sensory area, as they were struggling to source any. The request was advertised to the congregation and had a really good response - the care home received “sufficient for two planters, plus a small bay tree and other stuff too big for the planters – so they were well pleased!” 

Our project on the Isle of Wight was almost ready to launch when lockdown hit. There is a high proportion of older people and about 70 care homes on the island, and logistics can make it harder to get supplies. Using our local contacts and network of volunteers there, we have set up an initiative called “Wight Mask Ask” to bulk buy masks and other protective equipment and distribute it to care homes and home care providers in need across the island. So far we have raised over £23,000 in donations and distributed 5,000 items of PPE across the Isle of Wight, and this is just the beginning. Thank you to Graham Reading Photography for this great photo of the PPE being received on the island.

Naturally we have not been able to launch any new visiting projects during the lockdown. However, Tina has been busy developing our online training resources so that we can facilitate training new champions and volunteers across the country.

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the importance of caring for, and befriending, our older generations and, with all our experience and resources, a Care Home Friends project could provide someone who wants to make a difference with everything they need to get started. If you know anyone that might be interested in exploring starting a new project, please ask them to contact us.