The huge emotional and physical impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on care home residents, their loved ones and staff has been revealed in a report by Healthwatch South Tyneside.
Restricted visiting led to low mood, anxiety and feelings of loneliness, with many residents becoming withdrawn and reducing their food and fluid intake. Many staff also reported reduced mobility and clear signs of depression.
Relatives also suffered greatly from the inability to visit their loved ones, using words such as ‘stressful’, ‘difficult’, ‘excruciating’, ‘heart-breaking’ and ‘devastating’ to describe the lockdown periods, with guilt also a common emotion expressed.
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Healthwatch commissioned Gateshead-based market research consultancy Bluegrass Research to carry out online surveys of staff and relatives of residents in South Tyneside’s 32 care homes.
Over a three month period, 75 employees from 20 care homes and 81 relatives and friends of residents at 11 homes took part.
More than a third of staff reported residents’ emotional wellbeing as being worse than before the pandemic, with two in five staff witnessing a worsening of conditions like Alzheimer’s or dementia which they felt was due to the pandemic.
Half of relatives felt that residents’ emotional wellbeing was worse than before the pandemic, citing loneliness, depression or anxiety, while almost one in three noticed a change in eating habits or a deterioration in mobility.
Most relatives agreed with the view expressed by staff that they felt they had tried their best and done a good job, with many sharing their thanks and praise.
In some cases, perceived quality of care actually saw an improvement on pre-pandemic levels – a testament to the dedication and efforts of all staff involved.
Arthur McKean, Interim Chair of Healthwatch South Tyneside, said: “With nearly 30 years’ experience working in care homes and in domiciliary care, I can both empathise with residents and their loved ones who have suffered so greatly during the pandemic and understand the significant impact on staff.
“There are lots of lessons to be learned from Covid-19 in relation to the care home sector, but the purpose of this research was to specifically identify the impact of the pandemic on emotional and physical health.
“Hopefully our findings will help care home providers develop new methods for maintaining safe contact between residents and their relatives and close friends in the event of any future lockdowns, given the clear evidence of the damage caused by isolation.
“I’d like to thank all staff and loved ones of residents who took the time to take part in this research.”
The full report can be read here.
