How COVID-19 Has Affected Abbey Court Care Home
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We asked for your experiences on COVID-19, Brian Murray, Home Manager, at Abbey Court shared his story here:
When the news first started breaking in it was like any other news story, “happening somewhere else in the world” “we won’t get it here, no one would be stupid enough to let infected people travel through different countries”. That was only a few short weeks ago but now seems so much longer.
In our home, we jumped quite quickly, we already operated a very strict infection control procedure on a normal daily basis. After a flash meeting we decided to keep doing what we do and monitor the situation. We counted stock and placed an order for extra sanitising supplies “just in case”, the next day, the fear got a little closer with some suspected cases in England, then Scotland. What happened next was unprecedented, we quickly realised that hard choices would have to be discussed. The first weekend in March we decided to limit visits to bedrooms only, we installed extra sanitising equipment at the front door and put up safety notices issued by the health departments, still thinking it was nothing and would blow over in a few days, but with our professional heads on we decided to sit on the side of caution. The good news was our residents’ families and other visitors trusted us, there was no moaning or groaning and they all agreed it was best for the residents to put in restrictions.
Then, it got fast. Very fast. Within the week we had stopped all visits, ordered more sanitising equipment or at least tried, purchased infra-red thermometers and started taking temperatures twice a day, we met with staff and established who could, if it came to, move into the home and cover shifts for a week at a time and we had a surprising amount of volunteers, we spoke to suppliers about their methods of keeping things sanitised and would have cancelled any we weren’t happy with. I was emailing all the relatives with updates on what was happening and when it became clear it was going to go for a while we set up Facebook and WhatsApp groups so we could show them what was going on and hopefully keep them satisfied. The response was amazing, within 2 days we had 90 members in the group all sharing pictures, videos, live feeds and stories.
In my 30 years of working in care I have never experienced anything like this. I quickly realised that a huge part of care work is empathy. When people are feeling lonely, or ill, or upset care staff can empathise with them and that leads how we care for them because we have felt that way or known someone who has felt that way and we can treat them how we would want to be treated, but this virus (or thankfully in our case the threat of the virus), was completely new, none of us have experienced it so none of us knows what’s going to happen if it reaches us, it’s terrifying, the daily news with updates on cases and deaths is so real now.
Our home has 26 elderly residents, we have been open less than 2 years, it was a pet project started by myself and my deputy manager when we worked together in another home, without a penny between us we managed to buy an old home and renovate it over a period of 3 years. We thought we were proud when it opened, we thought we were proud when our staff proved they were a great team and helped the home become one of the highest rated homes in the country. But, now, we are blown away by how our staff have stepped up and made our residents lives so much better in the shadow of the worst crisis to hit civilisation. Our residents are having an amazing time, they are not isolated or lonely or depressed or scared because our staff refuse to allow that to happen, for the last 4 days we have been keeping residents in their rooms to initiate social distancing, yet the staff have come up with street parties, games played from the doorways, singing groups and quizzes and we are relaying it all to their loved ones at home who are so grateful they can see and speak to them without visiting. We have no idea how long this will last, we have no idea how much worse it will get if we ever get the virus but the spirits of everyone is enough to convince me that no matter what, we will get through this together as one big family.
Brian Murray
Home Manager, at Abbey Court
