Covid-19
Reflecting on positives learnt during the pandemic
Erica Lockhart, chief executive of the Surrey Care Association, explains how the positives learnt during the coronavirus pandemic by the industry group and wider social care sector can be taken forward in the months ahead
The new year is often a time of reflection, where we look back on the previous 12 months and take stock of the things that have changed, the things that we have learnt and the things we would like to do better.
Looking back on 2020, however, is looking back on a year like no other. There are so many things to consider from a period that is probably been the most challenging our sector has ever faced. Although the roll-out of a vaccine is in progress, the coronavirus pandemic will still be here and causing problems for some time yet, which means we need to persevere with our adapted processes and procedures, and continue working hard to negate its impact.
We had challenges throughout 2020 that we would never have envisaged going into it, but one thing that served to set us in good stead was the ability to learn from the first wave of infections to counteract the second, allowing us to analyse and review what we could have done better from the first and ensure we were better prepared for the second.
Within this, alongside improvements to our approach to care and the safeguarding methods we use to keep staff and care recipients from harm, we were also able to look at our standing as a sector and consider our future. Despite the many challenges and the huge costs faced in 2020, there have also been many positives that we can take forward.
Opportunity knocks
One of the biggest of these is that social care providers, and care homes in particular, have now been recognised as key partners within local communities. For a long time, social care was very much seen as the inferior partner to healthcare, with the NHS gaining the plaudits, public recognition and additional funds. Since the advent of the Covid pandemic, however, social care has been put on a similar pedestal. In addition to this, care homes are now also seen as an integral part of their communities. Prior to the pandemic - unless you had a relative living in a care setting - many of the wider public paid them little attention.
Yet now those living near us, and not just those with loved ones living in homes, want to know how we are coping and how we have been affected. They want to understand and appreciate the impact on residents and, in many cases, to offer support where possible.
So, while it was the negative effects of the Covid epidemic in care homes that put our sector in the spotlight, the huge positive to take from it has opened us up to the wider world. It has made people take notice that not only are we merely here but at the very heart of
communities, having previously been all but hidden in plain sight.
The weekly clap for carers was another good example of how we have been embraced by the public. For those working within our sector, it was tremendously rewarding to be recognised for the work that we have done and have been doing by an appreciative public. Yet it was not just the public who were rewarding us with enhanced recognition, those in the NHS also opened their arms to us - both needing us and acknowledging our worth - not just for their patients but also recognising our contribution as part of the wider community.
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • January 2021
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