My year on the front line of providing home care for the most vulnerable in Suffolk

It is universally accepted that the care sector is living through the most challenging period in living history. Everyone felt the anguish as they were faced with a virus that no-one fully understood. Sadly, the assumption that those in care were most at risk proved to be correct in the most distressing way. In 2020, the elderly and those with underlying health issues faced the threat of Coronavirus with no defence.

Charlotte Driver-Young, Registered Manager of Christies Care, a leading Suffolk based live-in care provider rated outstanding by the CQC, tells us in her own words how the team rose to the challenge to try to keep everyone in their care – both clients and colleagues – safe from the virus.

“At the start, as the pandemic began to unfold, testing was not readily available with no support around getting our clients, family and carers tested. The pressure was huge and not just on those out in the community providing day-to-day care. The virus took a toll on our office-based staff as well, while they tried to work through logistical headaches, keep up to date with the latest guidance as well as providing emotional support for colleagues and families. The early months of the pandemic were tough on everyone, if I’m honest. Just trying to think through how we could keep everyone safe was exhausting. We did it, though. Our staff were amazing; just taking each day at a time. We followed government advice and managed to keep those in our care safe, which is all that really matters. “

When we were able to start testing, it was a huge relief. Our biggest fear had been that we knew that 1 in 3 of us could be infected but not have symptoms which from our perspective, as carers, this made fighting the virus doubly hard. Testing helped us to make sure that we could keep everyone safe.

Since the start of our testing programme, all of our staff take a PCR test each week. Our carers on training also do two lateral flow tests each week on-site. In addition, we send out lateral flow testing kits to our clients, so we know that when our colleagues see them to provide care, both are virus free and to enable quick testing as and when needed. We felt that we had to be so careful and that no chances could be taken. We provided all our staff with extensive guidance and training on the testing programme along with PPE. We also put in place a wellbeing and support programme for everyone at Christies Care. From early on we could see the potential damage the continual pressure of the pandemic was putting on the wellbeing of all our team. We wanted to make sure that we were not only keeping our team physically as safe as we could, but that we looked after their mental wellbeing too.

My team has been amazing from beginning to end. We have learnt so much this year about implementing protocols in a pandemic. We have changed rotas with no warning as we had to fill in gaps when a member of staff tested positive and needed to self-isolate. We have all had to pivot on a sixpence and establish new dynamic and flexible ways of working. Overall, we could not have got through this without a team which has worked together so well. As a team, I think we are all stronger as a result as the only way to come through the last twelve months was to stick together.

It is a picture of Amrit Dhaliwal, MD of Christies Care Franchising at our in-house lateral flow testing site to ensure he had a negative test before meeting with Christies Care colleagues.