I’d love to go & grab my Dad from his care home, but I won’t, because although he has no mental deterioration or disease like dementia, he has complex physical care needs. We have a good relationship with his care team (and all his unit staff) so know he is in the best possible place for his own safety & security.
Not only was this family abusive & assaulted a care worker, no doubt the Grandmother they attempted to liberate will be traumatised. There is a delicate balance with loss of liberty versus maintaining a ‘normal’ life via a solid legal framework when your relative enters a care home, you can’t just liberate a relative. That’s without the possibility that they’ve silently infected both the care staff & residents.
What this family did is misguided at best & dangerous at worst. We saw how families lost elderly loved ones in his home in the first wave of this horrible disease.
His home locked down 2 weeks prior to the March lockdown. Care staff left their families & stayed at the home. We saw the GP mask, put on a jumpsuit, gown, 2 pairs of gloves, masks, visor & boots to do her weekly GP rounds. Then disinfect her whole outfit before entering the home. When we could see our Dad (outside) it’s distanced, no touching, masked (not ideal conditions to chat to an elderly relative with hearing loss!), with temp checks & 10 min visits. Even then, the virus got a foothold & it’s terrifying as a relative to be told, “Just letting you know there have been positive cases on his ward.”
People who think what this family did make them heroes are idiots who need to let their heads lead the conversation, not their hearts.