Care Homes

Winter infections have always been a problem for care homes and the residents that live in them. Those of us working in care of older people usually enter the festive season knowing that we’ll spend much of our time caring for care home residents affected by flu, pneumonia, and norovirus. Individual residents often fare poorly, and their difficulties are compounded when homes have to close due to outbreaks.

In this video blog, Mike Nicholson, an Edinburgh-based writer and social researcher, tells some of the real life stories of those living and working in care homes during the pandemic.

This is the third blog in the BGS’s ‘Timely Discharge’ series. We aim to raise awareness of the detrimental effects on older people of being stuck in hospital when they are 'medically fit for discharge'. Our blog series explores the causes of delayed discharges, the knock-on effects to the wider health and social care system, and what needs to change.

This year’s theme for the International Day of Older Persons is digital equity for all ages. This is timely given the acceleration of the use of digital communications and services during the pandemic and the risks that some people, particularly older people, could be left behind. In Wales 41% of people over the age of 75 are not online and are at an increasing disadvantage in many aspects of life as a result.

Resy Manalo, Lalaine Lopez Pesario, Gilbert Barnedo, Elsie Sazuze, Suzanne Loverseed and Karen Hutton are some of the care home workers who lost their lives during the coronavirus pandemic.