Keeping home care visits going and Covid-19 safe

Home care and keeping COVID-19-safe is challenging when COVID-19 has presented continuing challenges to the care industry. Health, Care and Key workers at the frontline have had to learn to swim in the COVID-19 currents quickly. Guardian Angel Carers are good swimmers, and the whole team has responded and acted to go above and beyond in its approach and actions to keep our home care clients safe.

Early sourcing and resourcing of our CareAngels with PPE and providing them with the guidance they needed to follow, has helped us stay ahead. With the support of our home care clients and their families, observing the guidelines, has meant we have been able to keep families in touch throughout the ongoing situation.

It has highlighted to us again the benefits of home care, that living at home, with individual managed care, provides safe and happy outcomes.

This month more good news filtrates through, with 90-year-old Margaret Keenan the first-person to be inoculated for Covid-19, and administration of vaccines beginning on a large scale this week. The UK health and care sector will be all hands on deck.

It’s great news for us and our clients too, many in the age or high-risk priority groups, we expect to hear very soon through your GPs, when we can assist you in getting your vaccination.

But, when so much of the population remains vulnerable to COVID-19, we must all remain cautious and continue to observe the preventative regulations, to help save lives.

Our COVID-19 team, led by Christina Bassadone, Founder of Guardian Angel Carers, has ensured that all of our team, both CareAngels and office, are fully trained on infection control to understand the implications.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is in plentiful supply for all our CareAngels, which they access and replenish daily for each visit they make and their uniforms are all washed at a high temperature.

In addition, we keep the team updated daily, on any alterations to Government advice to ensure that our systems and processes continue safe delivery across our home care services.

Adaptations to our practices, in line with current Government advice, have been made, and we thought it would be helpful to re-iterate how you and our CareAngels are following all our guidelines, so that together you and they can continue to keep you safe and happy at home.

Personal Protective Equipment Best Practice We have created four home care client scenarios, with carefully outlined guidelines, for our CareAngel team to follow when delivering care in our clients’ homes.

1 – Where a Client requires physical Personal Care If a CareAngel is in contact with the client, providing our services for personal care such as washing, dressing and hair, then all our CareAngels must wear:

disposable gloves disposable plastic apron fluid repellent (type IIR) surgical mask eye protection

2 – Where a Client is in the COVID-19 ‘At Risk’ Category Home care and keeping covid-19 safe we ensure If our home care clients are ‘At Risk’ or they, or someone they live with, has COVID-19 symptoms of a high temperature, loss of taste & smell and a repetitive cough, then CareAngels are required to wear:

disposable gloves disposable plastic apron fluid repellent (type IIR) surgical mask eye protection

3 – When two-metre social distancing is not possible in the home When a CareAngel is unable to social distance to the advised two metres, with a home care client or household member, but is not required to carry out physical contact duties, and no one in the household has COVID-19 symptoms, nor is ‘at risk’, our CareAngels must wear:

Type II surgical mask

4 – When A client Tests positive for COVID-19 If caring for a client with a confirmed case of COVID-19, we will form a ‘cell’ group of CareAngels who only provide care for that individual to avoid risk of spread. CareAngels must wear:

fluid repellent type IIR surgical mask (at all times) • overalls disposable gloves eye protection

Following All The COVID-19 ADVICE HANDS FACE SPACE

The Government’s winter campaign has been very helpful in reminding us of the three important behaviours for all of us to follow. For clarity:

HANDS

Coronavirus can live for more than 24 hours in indoor environments, so CareAngels and their visitors are requested to wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, on arrival and regularly throughout the day. Using hand sanitiser, regularly throughout the day, also reduces the risk of catching or passing on the virus.

FACE

Coronavirus gets carried in the air by respiratory droplets. The Government advice states that “larger droplets can land on other people or on surfaces they touch while smaller droplets, called aerosols, can stay in the air indoors for at least five minutes, and often much longer if there is no ventilation”. Our CareAngels follow our PPE guidelines, and visitors to our clients’ homes are requested to wear face coverings to reduce the spread of these droplets.

SPACE

The virus is most likely to get transmitted when people are within 2 metres of each other. So, the risk increases exponentially the closer you get. CareAngels and family visitors are requested to keep outside the two-metre distance zone from a client. Where this isn’t possible, the necessary PPE (see scenarios above) must be used. At all times, we ask everyone in contact with our clients to remain mindful of surroundings and continue to create that space to help us continue to make the impact we need to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

You can also look at our ‘useful links’ page for additional regulated and helpful advice.

CareAngels And COVID19 symptoms CareAngels report to us daily on their health and wellbeing. Should they, or a member of their ‘bubble’ household, exhibit any of the COVID-19 symptoms – cough, temperature, loss of taste or smell – they will be tested immediately and required to observe self-isolation of 14 days if the test is positive.

Guardian Angel Carers will care for them too, ensuring that we provide food and essential supplies to their doorsteps (observing all social distancing requirements) where needed.

We have also provided ongoing guidance to our team on boosting their immune systems and have issued free vitamin D tablets to our entire team, thanks to Vegetology.

Home Care and Keeping Covid-19 Safe Visits One of the wonderful things about home care during COVID-19 is that social contact with family and friends is much more manageable, and wellbeing is kept at the heart of our approach.

In-person social interaction has been possible because ‘bubbles’ have been maintained. Home care and keeping Covid-19 safe has benefited both family and our home care clients to keep that social interaction. We thank everyone for safely observing the guidelines to allow us to continue in that aim.

Where social interaction has not been possible, our CareAngels are facilitating FaceTime or WhatsApp video calls. We have spare tablets available should any of our CareAngels not be able to do this through their own smartphones.

CareAngel Back Up We have developed a CareAngel reserves initiative and have had a fantastic response. All reserve applicants will be reference checked, and have an enhanced DBS (police check), as well as having attended our mandatory training. You can check for more details here.

Our new CareAngel reserves mean we can respond to families living away or support additional home care requirements, due to COVID-19 or pro-longed waits for treatment. From our friendly phone-call service, tech-enabled care assistance, shopping deliveries and meal deliveries to live-in care, we can adapt to your care needs.

Keeping Up Social Contact And Help Out We can also support those recovering from COVID-19 following a hospital stay, to convalescence and provide reassurance, comfort and medical care support.

A live-in or visiting CareAngel will also help keep on top of the domestic tasks, cook you freshly-cooked meals and be some welcome company if you live alone.

Recovery care will support you to regain your confidence and physical strength, which can be significantly affected after a prolonged hospital stay.

COVID-19 Helpful Care Information and Local Action Christina Bassadone spends considerable time ensuring we are closely following and exceeding any safety guidelines while keeping as much ‘normality’ as possible.

Christina has created some useful ‘short videos’ about the various initiatives and actions we can take to help out. Importantly, to stay connected to others for wellbeing. We are proud of the response of our CareAngels and local communities and the care they have expressed towards our clients.

“Efficient, punctual and very pleasant. Handling of protecting client during covid19 pandemic has been excellent” (home care client)

click here for more details or to contact Guardian Angel Carers