Birchwood House is a care home in Speldhurst, just outside of Tunbridge Wells and Birchwood Care Services provide homecare to clients in the Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Sevenoaks areas. So how have they coped with these extremely challenging conditions?
“We have been following the Government advice closely.” Wendy explains “The health and safety of our clients and staff is of the utmost importance to us and we have been doing everything we can to ensure this, and any staff who think they may have had symptoms have been told to self-isolate whilst clients are encouraged to inform us if they feel like they have symptoms too.”
Helen agrees “The situation has been fluid and evolving faster than perhaps we could have imagined so we have been adjusting how we work on a regular basis to make sure all staff and residents are safe and well.”
Measures taken by Birchwood House include stopping all visits to the home from friends and family members. “We put this in place before the lockdown was officially announced.” Helen explains “And we think this has been absolutely vital in helping us control the spread of the virus.”
Many of the Birchwood House residents love the homely, family feel and bustling atmosphere they enjoy in the care home and although it has been much harder for residents to socialise and interact with one another and their families, the staff at Birchwood House have been doing everything they can for the residents. Says Helen “We have a very close bond with our residents and spirits are high! We’re also using modern technology to keep them connected with friends and families via video calls as well as making use of our beautiful gardens when we can. When it is safe to do so will look at visits, but these will be carefully supervised to ensure social distancing measures are adhered to.”
Loneliness for those living alone can be one of the reasons the support of the Birchwood Care Services team is so vital, and they have been doing everything they can to support their clients wherever possible. “We have a strict set of guidelines that our staff need to adhere to whenever visiting a client.” Says Wendy “All staff take these guidelines very seriously and wear PPE as well as gloves, aprons and hand gels.”
Continuing to offer essential care to these vulnerable people during this unprecedented period is not easy but if you do have a loved one who is in need of care either in their own home or in a care home, then the teams at Birchwood House and Birchwood Care Services are always on the end of the phone to chat, help and advise!
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