Care Home Report: Sharing good practice and suggestions

Covid 19 has had an adverse impact on everyone, with the care home sector being particularly affected. Care homes have the unenviable task of balancing infection control with resident wellbeing. Healthwatch Derbyshire gathered information to try to understand how the Covid 19 pandemic has affected the mental and physical wellbeing of care home residents (and their relatives) and what measures have been introduced to combat these problems.

The purpose of this report was to highlight the many areas of good practice demonstrated by care homes despite the restrictions they faced. Visiting restrictions placed a lot of pressure on care home staff and many were able to find new and creative ways for relatives to stay in touch with their loved ones.

The piece of work was developed and completed during the past few months ensuring timely information of use to the wider care home system.

As detailed in the report this has been shared with the Derbyshire Strategic Care Homes Group and Care Homes Cell. Healthwatch Derbyshire is continuing discussions with the group(s) and wider stakeholders to ensure the feedback collected and good practice highlighted is shared across the system and used to improve the experience of care home residents and their families and loved ones.