The impact of COVID-19 visiting restrictions on relatives of older care home residents: shared learning going forward

Register for this event on: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-year-from-lockdown-shared-learning-from-impact-of-visiting-restrictions-tickets-143739890883

Background

Visiting restrictions to care homes have been in place for a year now, with this having significant impact on family carers as well as residents. The UK Government initiated a national ‘lockdown’ on 23 March 2020, with some care homes closing their doors as early as 11 March in Scotland.

The most recent Scottish Government guidance, issued 24 Feb 2021, is designed to ease restriction and ‘open with care: supporting meaningful contact in care homes’. It comes as we continue to learn about the impact on families, and continue to get on top of the virus.

The event

This event will share findings from the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funded research in Phase 1 of lockdown, on the impact of visiting restrictions on family carers, as well as the creative practices that have helped connect families. However, the session is very much about continuing the conversation with short inputs from different stakeholders.

Aims

· Share what we have all learned

· Identify what we want to take with us into the future.

Contributions

It is an opportunity to listen , to reflect on what we have learnt, and can still learn by working together. We are delighted to have contributions from:

· Iona Colvin, Chief Social Work Adviser

· Donald Macaskill, CEO of Scottish Care

· Care Home Relatives Scotland

· Care home staff

· Care Inspectorate

· Research team from CSO-funded research

More about the research

The CSO research, carried out between May and October 2020, focused on the impact of visiting restrictions during first lockdown and creative practices. It involved in-depth qualitative interviews and an online survey to measure carers’ mental health, yielding 444 responses from 31 out of 32 local authorities. The report is now available here.

The investigation involved a team of researchers, led by the University of Edinburgh and involving the University of Strathclyde, University of the West of Scotland and Iriss.

For more information: https://www.creativecovidcare.com/