Care Homes During Covid - Report

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on care homes, both here in Liverpool and across the UK. In March 2021, we published a report about the impact of Covid-19 on care homes, based on interviews and focus groups we held with care home staff and relatives of care home residents. You can read that report on our website.

Since then, there have been a number of changes to both Covid-related restrictions for the general public, and to Covid guidance for care homes. In July 2021, we launched a survey for friends and relatives of care home residents, to collect further feedback about their experiences of care homes during the pandemic. We were interested in finding out what people’s experiences of care homes was at this time, and how much people’s experiences had changed across the course of the pandemic.

We have published a new report, summarising what people told us, along with a short one-page summary of our findings.

Feedback that we gathered through our survey was mixed, but tended to be more negative. We found that:

• People’s experiences of communication from care homes was mixed, although more people reported having a negative experience than a positive experience;
• People’s experiences of communicating with their loved one in a care home directly was mixed, although more people reported having a negative experience than a positive experience;
• People’s experiences of visiting their loved one in a care home was mixed, although more people reported having a negative experience than a positive experience;
• The majority of people felt that the pandemic had a significant impact on the activities their loved one in a care home was able to take part in;
• The majority of people felt the pandemic had a severe impact on the physical health of their loved one in a care home;
• The majority of people felt the pandemic had a severe impact on the mental health and general wellbeing of their loved one in a care home; and
• The majority of people had concerns about the quality of care and support their loved one in a care home received during the pandemic.

A number of issues raised through this survey are issues that we have previously identified in other work and reports on care homes during the pandemic that we have done.

We will continue to monitor feedback we receive about care homes, and will continue to monitor the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in this area.