The COVID-19 Recovery and Rehabilitation project was kindly funded by The Rayne Foundation to help care homes share with each other what they are doing to help individuals living, dying, visiting and working in care homes for older people to move on from COVID-19. This story relates to Focusing on relationships. We all need to feel a sense of security, belonging, continuity, purpose, achievement and significance to be in good relationship with others. This story focuses mainly on the sense of continuity, but within it all the other senses are visible.

If you have a story to share, please email us on mhlcharity@outlook.com.

As one care home shared …

One of the most obvious benefits of the restrictions being lifted was the mental health boost it brought to our residents. Being able to connect with loved ones again had a huge impact naturally [sense of security]. But it was challenging for us as a home though because restrictions being lifted did not simply translate to everyone being able to come into the home for a visit. We slowly had to get into the new way of operating and managing the expectations of relatives was one of the most challenging tasks [sense of purpose].

 

As a way of getting back to some sense of normality, we asked our residents what they missed the most, and almost everyone said it was going outside and seeing people [sense of continuity]. We therefore had a task on our hands, to get back in touch with the community.

 

As a home, our unique selling point is family. We really strive to make sure that the home feels like one big family, that is, residents, staff, and relatives [sense of belonging]. We have also made it a point to link up with the community outside the care home, as a way of extending the feeling of being a part of something bigger than just the home [sense of significance]. Often people come to live with us based on word-of-mouth recommendations and not via brochures or flyers. Pre-pandemic, we had some good links with the community and having a minibus made a big difference in facilitating these links. However, during the lockdown, these stopped and keeping in touch with the community was more difficult. The experience of not having such links to the community has not only demonstrated to us that it is important, but that it is critical.

 

Since the restrictions eased, we have been quite proactive about reconnecting with the community and even making new links. Although we can go out at different times, we now have a dedicated day when we take our residents out and about. We go in the morning and then in the afternoon, visiting places like the local church, the garden centre, having fitness sessions by the river with members of the community, and more. We’re more visible in the community and being a part of something bigger than our care home has proven to be great, not just for residents but for staff too [sense of achievement]. Being known by the local community helps create a sense of belonging.

How do you help others feel that they can make links and connections between their past, present and future lives?