London home care agency helps alcoholics as drink problems worsen during lockdown

A home care agency in London is giving support via video calls to addicts whose drinking problems have worsened during lockdown.

is not only a home care agency supporting the elderly and vulnerable but is an Addiction Recovery Support Service providing emotional and practical support for alcoholics and drug addicts to rebuild their lives after being discharged from rehab centres.

’I have had a lot of relatives on the phone distraught about family members’

The Addiction Recovery Support Service can help with supporting clients to live a healthy lifestyle including nutrition and exercise, helping clients to achieve long-term goals such as returning to work or education and working to recognise and avoid triggers of a potential relapse.

However, with pubs being closed across the UK, alcohol bought from supermarkets is on the rise. A new study commissioned by Drinkaware charity stated drinking in the UK has increased by nearly a quarter (24 per cent) and this has brought challenges to some of the clients Right at Home Addiction Recovery Support Services support.

Managing director Bryan McMorrine told homecare.co.uk: “For a lot of people their drink problems are getting worse, so we have been trying to help our clients over video with them.

“There are some great online courses that we work alongside to help people recover for longer but it is getting people engaged just now and either visit them in their home or have them motivated enough for them to dial into a video call every day.

“I have had a lot of relatives on the phone really distraught about their family members and all I can do is point them in the right direction.”

Once people leave a detox treatment centre or hospital, there is none checking up on them to see how they can help. Right at Home Addiction Recovery Support Service is there to ensure someone can check up on the clients every day.

The concerns Mr McMorrine is having with the current government guidelines are his clients are nervous about letting other people into their homes with PPE. “Or they are using it as an excuse because they are still fighting against getting the help as well?

“I think a lot of people recognise they do need help and realise they have a drink problem especially if they have been drinking every day during lockdown.”

Once lockdown eases Mr McMorrine said: “It is just really a case of just lining everybody up when lockdown is slightly relaxed so we can get moving into the homes and get started.”

There are also plans to expand the service and recruit more staff. ”There is definitely a gap in the market at the moment as other competitors [might] not have CQC registration, insurance and often they are individual self-employed who are charging triple the cost of what we are.

“It’s going to be an affordable service and not just for the ultra-wealthy. We want to get this into the mass market more so they can get that help if they need it.”

Mr McMorrine has had contact with rehab units as far as the far east from clients who want to use the London service but at present due to the pandemic, they are unable to fly.

With the contacts Mr McMorrine has built up over the last few months, the rehab unit have people ready to go home.

Mr McMorrine said: “We have had a lot of meetings with the staff to get everything right when people do come home but it is a case of when are we going to get started with them.”

’I genuinely have people who want to look after clients and do a good job’

Mr McMorrine also manages 50 staff with his Right at Home home care agency. Since lockdown the staff have adjusted to new rules: “There were a few panics for the first couple of weeks and a lot of that was reading the press interpretations.

“Now everyone is working and taking the correct precautions so they were happy to carry on to care for the clients out there. I genuinely have people who want to look after the clients and want to do a good job. We have not had a single case of COVID from any of our clients' homes.”

Right at Home (Central London) has seen an increase for live-in care. This helps clients with interaction and prevents isolation as local activities and trips to cafes have stopped.

“It has changed primarily for people who were having multiple visits per day so we have seen some of them go to live in care so they can just keep the one person there for the whole time during the lockdown. And that has worked really well.”

Team meetings via Zoom become the norm for the agency staff before lockdown. “The Zoom calls are great for training and for team meetings,” says Mr McMorrine. “Even before the lockdown, I moved my meetings to Zoom as well because we were finding the meeting rooms were getting really full with the number of staff we have so we were finding it better that the staff dial in.”

Right at Home (Central London) has plans when lockdown is eventually lifted: “We had a summer party planned for all of the staff but is on hold but I think it will actually be a big party once we are allowed to meet and socialise again.”

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