Care home wellbeing project: support to relatives and family carers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Healthwatch in Sussex (Healthwatch Brighton & Hove, Healthwatch East Sussex and Healthwatch West Sussex organised a series of webinar events between September 2020 and March 2021 on behalf of informal carers (families and friends) of care home residents.

Their purpose was to:

• Share unpaid carers’ views and experiences of visiting (or not visiting) their relative or friend in a care home during the pandemic.
• Enable unpaid carers to ask questions and gain answers from health and social care representatives about current and future access to care home residents.
• Have access to timely, accurate information around official and local visiting guidelines.
• Raise any concerns about wider care home service improvement; and
• Influence decisions made by health and care leaders during the pandemic.

Issues discussed in the webinars included being able to visit their loved ones in care homes; the impact of separation on both them and their loved ones, communication with care homes; the vaccination roll out, when full visits would be able to resume and how health and care partners should support relatives and carers.

The recommendations from the webinars were:

• Share timely National Guidance updates with relatives.
• Follow through pledges made during these webinars.
• Encourage shared learning across Sussex between health and care partners.
• Care Home providers to share good practice.
• Continue with the option for Zoom ‘visiting’ alongside face-to-face visits; and
• Keep the ‘good practices’ identified in these webinars