Residents, Relatives, Staff: Care home experiences during covid-19
In June this year, Healthwatch Lancashire, working together with Lancashire County Council, launched a series of online surveys. Designed to hear the experiences of Lancashire’s care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, the surveys were shared in three formats:
- Residents
- Staff
- Relatives of residents
Based on the responses, we have produced three reports, focusing on the experiences of each group.
The surveys
The surveys were created to provide a ‘snapshot’ of the experience of people living in, working in and who had relatives in care homes in Lancashire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each survey was shared with care homes based across the county.
Generally, the surveys asked questions on topics such as:
- How are staff managing to continue providing a quality service?
- What are their challenges?
- What is different and the same for residents?
- What challenges are the families of residents facing?
The responses
The feedback from the surveys will inform quality improvements, identify outstanding needs and improve communication between care homes and families.
Responses to this survey suggest that life for all of those involved with care homes may be very different to the ‘pandemic life’ experienced by most people and that everyone involved is facing and dealing with a multitude of challenges. At the same time we were aware of some amazing examples of great service delivery under tricky conditions.
We wanted to hear about these experiences and understand how people have managed (and are continuing) to manage during these unusual and difficult times.
The reports
A full description of the findings of each survey can be found in the reports. Take a look.