Housebound survey

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Healthwatch Ealing launched a second iteration of its Housebound Research Project to understand the impact that the pandemic and resulting lockdowns have had on housebound Ealing.

 From August to October 2021, with the support of Ealing Council, Healthwatch Ealing distributed paper copy surveys to individuals that receive fully or partially local authority funded Homecare asking them to provide their feedback on how they had been supported by their Homecare providers and indeed other health & social care services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was designed to understand what aspects of care are being effectively delivered and what ones need to be explored for further development. In total, 192 individuals provided their feedback.

Individuals’ regular care staff were one of the most common sources of positive feedback with individuals praising carers for their high quality of care and personal compassion with the findings indicating that more regular interactions with carers helped to prevent many individuals from feeling lonely and socially isolated during this time. In addition to the care itself, a significant proportion of individuals also indicated that communication from their Homecare provider regarding changes to their care had been satisfactory. Last, Pharmacy services and the distribution of COVID-19 related information was widely praised.

However, the findings clearly show that there are inconsistencies in the delivery of Homecare and support for Housebound individuals. The more detailed responses reinforce these findings and point toward where improvements to Homecare and other health and social care services can be made.

The resulting set of recommendations laid out at the end of this report suggest that more comprehensive Social Care Assessments need to be delivered for Housebound individuals; that more inclusive communication channels need to be established between Housebound individuals, their carers and their care providers; that all care staff should receive adequate training to improve the consistency in the quality of care delivery; and that the care services that support these individuals are further integrated, particularly through embedding a more detailed and person-centred referral process into homecare delivery to other care services and community organisations that can further supplement the support being provided by Homecare.