coronavirus
Visiting care homes in England from April 2022
Here’s a summary of the current guidance to care homes on visiting arrangement in England, applicable from 4 April 2022. The full text can be found in the ‘Covid-19 supplement to the infection prevention and control resource for adult social care’ published on 31 March. It’s worth checking this if you have a problem with […]
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Care home visiting January 2022
With restrictions being eased in some situations but maintained in others, it’s difficult to get to the facts of how care home visiting is now being controlled as we enter 2022 in the UK. Here are the latest guidelines that can help. It’s worth revisiting them from time to time or whenever you are concerned […]
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Care home visiting Christmas 2021
After the many heartaches of Christmas 2020, families of relatives living in care homes will have been hoping for a more ‘normal’ approach to visiting this year. Sadly, with the incredibly rapid spread of the latest variant of Covid-19, care homes are taking action again to protect their residents. Reactions are varied amongst homes, with […]
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Supporting older people: News roundup January 2021
In the first roundup of news for 2021, we look at vaccinations and lockdown, the future of home care, current and future scams, energy saving, and the disappearance of bank branches. The latest on Covid-19 vaccinations and lockdown With the fast-changing nature and spread of Covid-19 and the variety of government reactions, we think the […]
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Who gets the Covid-19 vaccination in the UK when?
We’ve been seeing a priority list for vaccination against Covid-19 circulating for a few weeks. Most of it works simply on age, but with those groups shielding and with ‘underlying health conditions’ added in. What hasn’t always been clear is that people receiving carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly […]
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Older life in the pandemic – news update
The Covid-19 pandemic is changing the way our older family and friends receive health, financial and other services. Here’s a roundup of recent news. Access to GP services Long-term Covid-19 effects Is blood pressure medication a worry? Hearing disability and masks Care homes in the pandemic Do not resuscitate orders Do you know if you’re […]
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What will it take for care homes to open their doors again?
When will we be allowed to get back into care homes to visit our loved ones? While some homes are clearly working hard to find solutions to what is an incredibly difficult question, others are said to have pulled up the drawbridge and are implementing draconian measures to keep visitors out, and to isolate residents […]
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Who needs to wear a face mask or covering and who’s exempt
Many of us are now being asked to wear face coverings on public transport, in hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries, and now in retail outlets. It’s a physically and socially odd feeling, but that we, and our family members, must get used to if we want to visit a growing number of facilities. The […]
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How the pandemic is changing the way we manage diabetes
Diabetes is one of the conditions believed to raise the risk level of serious illness for anyone who contracts Covid-19. One in four people who died in hospital in England between March and May 2020 following a diagnosis of the coronavirus also had diabetes. While this sounds alarming, the risk of dying is still very […]
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Keeping track of your relative’s mental health after lockdown
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way that the world has been functioning over the past few months. As we try to head out of lockdown and get our lives back to some semblance of ‘normal’, it is just as important that we look out for our older family and friends as much as when […]
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