Dear......
My name is ...... and I am writing to you in regards to the current situation surrounding care homes. My ...... is currently in a care home and it has been .... since I last saw them.
Please have a look at the above petition to allow residents in care homes to have a designated visitor be allowed into care homes for more than 30 minutes once a week and treated the same way as staff in terms of testing and protocols.
As you can see the petition has quite a following and we undertsand then need to protect residents from covid but as the winter months come into play we asking you to help us look to balance this in a bid to ensure the mental health of residents, families and staff are being looked after aswell.
The current guidance allows a designated visitor for one inside visit for 30minutes and a further outdoor visit for two households for up to three people again for 30 minutes. A lot of families who have signed the petition are crying out for longer visits. We feel these 30 minute visits are not aiding our loved ones who need interaction from families on a regular basis. It has taken so long for us to get to the stage where one person may be allowed inside for 30minutes we are fearful for when there will be any extension considered for this.
There is also ambiguity surrounding the essential visitor guidance - who gets decided when someone in a care home is distressed? Families certainly are not being allowed to partake in this decision.
We as families cannot understand why staff are allowed to spend hours with their families and friends (which is their right to do so) on days off and then go into work yet we are considered a risk to visit for more than 30 minutes. Where are the rights of residents and their families in this situation? No-one is asking for staff ot be kept from their families but for residents to be reuinted with theirs. There are also a lot of care homes interpreting the guidance in their own way so visits are varying from care home to care home and there is no consistency.What we are asking for is to be recognised as an important part of our loved ones lives and the benefits we can bring as an unpaid carer family member compared to staff. We feel 30 minutes once a week is not enough and is unfair, families would visit and assist with care ore covid, be it personal care or helping with dinner etc. We fear that we are not being recognised in the value we bring when visiting and we fear the isolation those in care homes are experiencing out with their one 30minute visit is doing great harm to them aswell. We need to find a balance going forward and families need to be heard, hence why we have the petition and are hoping that someone somehwere will stand up and listen. Â
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Restricting visits to residents in Care Homes to thirty minutes per week is causing untold mental anguish to the residents, their love ones and also impacts hard working carers who have to handle this unnatural environment.
Please consider relaxing the visit restrictions through identifying one family member as a key worker. The designated key worker would be required to comply with all necessary medical assessments and once cleared as being risk free allow that designated family member to visit their love one in their room ( which is their home) for one hour each day.
This would alleviate carer workload and help in halting the growing level of mental stress and despair being experienced by residents.
Send individually to:
FirstMinister@gov.scot
CareHomesCPAG@gov.scot
Richard.Leonard.msp@parliament.scot
Jackie.Baillie.msp@parliament.scot
Willie.Rennie.msp@parliament.scot
ruth.davidson.msp@parliament.scot
douglas.ross.mp@parliament.uk
ceu@gov.scot
plus whoever you think