CLEANING & HYGIENE
An Alternative Approach
With Covid-19 still posing a major challenge, JLA Head of Product Helen Buchan discusses new technology available to specialist dementia care homes to reduce this and other types of infection.
As a critical pillar of the UK’s social infrastructure, care homes look aſter some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. They naturally place a lot of emphasis on infection control and prevention, guarding against the likes of Covid-19, flu, norovirus and much more.
While rapid medical advances and new treatments are now helping carers manage the most severe cases, including Covid-19, developing new standards of infection prevention and effective care remains a priority for all of us. We must recognise the difficulty of applying safety measures in care homes, supported living services and extra-care housing, particularly where there are residents with dementia. But there are alternative methods of infection control that can make life much easier for carers, homes and their residents.
Balancing best-practice social distancing, isolation and hygiene practices against residents’ routines, preferences and freedoms, when trying to control infection, poses many challenges for those working with people living with dementia. Residents can be disturbed by the changes to the normal way of doing things. Face masks can impair social cognition, so it may not be practical for staff to wear them. Restricting access and contact in communal areas can be hard. In addition, the introduction of Regulation 9A: “Visiting and accompaniment in care homes, hospitals and hospices” to the Health and Social Care Act 2008, means homes must also now put in place necessary and proportionate precautions to enable a resident or patient to receive visits or be accompanied safely.
With current high-energy costs, the need for care homes to innovate and consider their approach to infection control, is
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