Health Visitor said we’ll be social distancing for 6-12months!

[Lou0808]

We had a catch up with our health visitor today.

We were discussing our next appointment which she said will be in 6 months time.
She said “as things stand it will be another telephone appointment, we anticipate social distancing to be in place for at least the next 6 months, maybe even 12”

I don’t know what I was expecting but I really didn’t think social distancing would be happening for that long.

I’m not sure how I feel about everything at the minute.
So many people are acting as though things are almost normal; and the risk is low.

Others still seem to be staying behind closed doors and living in fear.

I’m definitely behind the closed door 😔

I had a call from the HV today and she said that they were preparing to start up some in person services, by appointment only, possibly in the next month or two. Although it's an outsourced service in my area, I imagine where there are still areas serviced by the NHS the priorities might be different.

The HV is a lovely person. I wouldn’t describe her as crap at all.
She’s not my assigned health visitor but has been supporting us with breastfeeding and weight related issues for the last few months as she’s also an infant feeding coordinator.

Yes perhaps she was just trying to set my expectations. I think I was just shocked by it. Not really sure what I was expecting.

Personally I think we will be SD for the next few months there is no way business /schools /public transport/pubs etc will survive and people won't do it as we see now !

I don’t see it can carry on past the end of August. The schools haven’t got the space to accept all the kids back and they will want all kids back for sept of possible.

I didn't realise HVs weren't visiting people. Why can't they just keep 2m away?

We have a family friend who has a learning disability and the social workers have been doing socially distanced visits.

Until there is a vaccine, social distancing will need to continue

There may never be a vaccine so this is impractical.

I work in the nhs. I’m not doing home visits, but we are running clinics wearing PPE. I think your HV is talking rubbish!

I'm surprised you're shocked as it's been reported a number of times that the expectation of getting back to normal would be 12-18 months. It's a marathon not a race!
I think peoples hopes are being raised by all this opening up and relaxation of the rules.

I think your hv is one who likes to look at worst case scenario.

I'd take it as good news, she's identified you as managing well.

With the closure of Nurseries, Children's centres etc, it's put more strain on HVs. Families who need extra support, children at risk etc will still get the home visits. Which is why SWs are still doing home visits.

Six months is December, it's a month of Staff illness and extra pressure, in normal times. If the virus is still circulating, then people who don't need face-to-face visits, won't be given them.

It will of course depend on the area people are in. Some have a higher number of children who are known to services etc. Deprivation is set to rise, which always impacts on children. So the HV is just managing expectations.

There's no need for the amount of insults directed at the HV. They along with Family Support workers will be stretched to their limit. They will be taking over the safeguarding of the children who would be at Nursery/School/play groups.

My next haematology appointment is August and they've made that a telephone one and will courier my meds. I haven't seen haematology face to face since January, but it's based in the Macmillan centre so I understand why they're doing phone appointments

There are some not so nice comments about health visitors here. They obviously have a policy and are planning ahead, which is what you'd expect.

She's just repeating what she has been told in terms of the service. Our trust has been saying similar - we were told in March when our outpatient department shut that we couldn't reopen until July at the earliest, and now we are being told we have to maintain social distancing until at least end of the year. It's unlikely to be something she has made up off her own back.

I did not have any insider knowledge or powers of prediction back in March when I rescheduled all my patients to July/August. Although it probably looks like I did now.

It’s at least another year for a vaccine assuming one can be made.
Until antibody testing is easily available to all, everyone is in limbo. It could be another 6 months for any useful to be found.

Secondary and others don’t know when they are to start taking in other year groups yet. Come September that would have been 6 months. It was only supposed to be a couple of weeks.

Any coughs and temperatures we will have to self isolate until our numbers lower.

@ScarfLadysBag

To be fair, the HV probably has as much authority among the British public now as Boris Johnson

good point!

@cologne4711 it is very difficult to SD in people's homes, especially as so many new parents live in flats and small spaces. They don't want to be moving around all the vulnerable mums and babies - such an easy way to infect them.

I think common sense say we will have SD for at least 6 months.

The only proviso is if there is widespread antibody testing which shows widespread immunity (unlikely) or the R rate falls massively more than the current level.

My understanding is that Health Visitors and other Health professionals are receiving (very) regular updates from the health authorities on all aspects of this crisis,including projected timescales.

Accordingly they are well briefed to pass on information to families.

They are not ultimately responsible for making policy ,but as post grad educated health professionals,working in the field,they are very well able to influence it

Getting away from the actual point but I think the health visitors are crap thing is a self fulfilling cycle.

Health visitors aren’t funded to do enough interaction to form a useful relationship with most families. At the moment I think it’s five between pregnancy and school age. So people don’t engage, and don’t value the service. So funding is decreased and so on and so on.

A family member used to be a health visitor. She went to all the groups and called in on all the families regularly. If someone was missing from their usual routine for a couple of weeks she’d call or pop by to check how they were doing. She knew the mums and babies. There’s no funding for that now. My baby is one. I’m yet to meet my named health visitor (one of them does all the pregnancy talks and another the weaning talks so she didn’t meet me for those and I can’t remember why someone else did his 9month assessment thing). How could she possibly know how I and my baby are doing? And why would I reach out to her if I needed support? She’s a stranger to me.