{"id":5083,"date":"2020-04-29T10:58:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T09:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2020-04-29T10:58:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T09:58:32","slug":"greater-collaboration-needed-to-support-care-homes-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/2020\/04\/29\/greater-collaboration-needed-to-support-care-homes-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Greater collaboration needed to support care homes during COVID-19’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The colleagues stress that \u2018there is an\u00a0urgent need for greater joint working<\/strong>\u00a0across health and social care to support care homes with the clinical aspects of care during this pandemic\u2019. They said:<\/p>\n

\u2018Care homes provide care for the\u00a0most vulnerable adults<\/strong>\u00a0in our population and are likely to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Lack of systematic reporting of deaths in the community, including in care homes, has led to a\u00a0lack of evidence and clarity<\/strong>\u00a0about the magnitude of the problem but emerging\u00a0international evidence and feedback<\/a>\u00a0from the social care sector would suggest that it is both\u00a0vast and significant<\/strong>, with around half of all COVID-19 deaths being from care homes residents in reporting countries.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unlike health, social care is a\u00a0fragmented system<\/strong>\u00a0and care providers face a\u00a0perfect storm of challenges<\/strong>\u00a0around\u00a0infection management and control<\/strong>, including; lack of testing (to date), shortages of PPE, confusing and conflicting government guidance and staff shortages. There is also an\u00a0inherent conflict<\/strong>\u00a0between care homes being both a\u00a0place of \u2018care\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0and a\u00a0place of \u2018home\u2019<\/strong>. Many care homes across the UK are adapted from existing housing stock, meaning residents share communal lounges, bathrooms and WCs. Residents\u2019 rooms are encouraged to be homely,\u00a0not clinical<\/strong>, and as such do not resemble clinical settings in which symptomatic residents can be\u00a0isolated in \u2018zones\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0and non-symptomatic residents\u00a0shielded from infection<\/strong>. Anecdotal evidence from providers suggests that many have tried to protect residents by stopping visitors and reducing contact with the outside world, yet they are simultaneously being asked to accept patients from the community and hospitals who might be\u00a0a- or pre-symptomatic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2018There is an\u00a0urgent need<\/strong>\u00a0for greater joint working across health and social care to support care homes with the\u00a0clinical aspects<\/strong>\u00a0of care<\/strong>\u00a0during this pandemic. Government guidance is being constantly updated, with policies being open to interpretation by service providers, leading to\u00a0serious health and safety concerns\u00a0<\/a>amongst the social care workforce. However, there is also a need to support residents\u2019\u00a0social and emotional needs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Residents\u2019 social lives are already much smaller than most, contained to the facility in which they live and\u00a0dependent on the outside world<\/strong>\u00a0coming in. Some lack in-room entertainment, encouraging residents to spend time in communal areas instead. Now restricted to often very small bedrooms, such facilities are desperately needed and there have been\u00a0pleas for donations<\/strong>\u00a0of televisions and radios to keep residents\u2019\u00a0entertained and connected<\/strong>\u00a0to the outside world. Digital capacity for communication is largely unknown and likely to vary enormously between providers. Many residents will require support and there have been reports of phone calls being timed because\u00a0staff have only limited capacity<\/strong>\u00a0to support each resident with a call. Work is underway across the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) to coordinate research efforts and support the social care sector by providing\u00a0rapid, evidence based guidance<\/strong>\u00a0that the care sector desperately needs to meet the\u00a0unique challenges faced<\/strong>\u00a0during this global pandemic.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ann-Marie Towers<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0Senior Research Fellow at\u00a0CHSS<\/a>. She is a collaborator for the NIHR Research Design Service South East, a panel member for NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (South East) and leads a programme of work to develop, test and support the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT).<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Rasa Mikelyte<\/a>\u00a0is a Research Associate at\u00a0CHSS<\/a>. Her principal research interests are in dementia care and policy, with her doctoral research looking into improving mealtimes for people with dementia, their relatives and staff in NHS Continuing Care facilities.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Wenjing Zhang<\/a>\u00a0is a Research Assistant at\u00a0CHSS<\/a>. Her research expertise and interests focus on health and social care, ageing and social policy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The colleagues stress that \u2018there is an\u00a0urgent need for greater joint working\u00a0across health and social care to support care homes with the clinical aspects of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59459,"featured_media":5084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5085,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions\/5085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}