All those who want to lock the elderly down. This is one example why we shouldn't

[HoppingOnSteppingStones]

I hear time and time again. If the elderly or vulnerable were made to stay in then we could live pretty normally. Blah blah

Well one example how this has affected my grandmother.
She had quite low mobility. However would go for a walk to the store maybe twice a week.
She lives in a sheltered accommodation so each evening would walk to the community hall for various things with the other residents, bingo, cards, darts, singing

Lockdown 1. Community room Locked. Chairs in reception removed.
Everything cancelled.

These never re opened. Could have 5 in the room for a chat when restrictions eased but had to be booked.

By Oct they locked it up again and has remained since.

My grandmothers apartment is tiny. Lounge maybe 12 ft x 8 ft.
Kitchen 8 ft x 2.5 ft floor space
Bedroom. Double bed 1 bedside and a wardrobe.

No where to excercise, only excercise she could do anyway was a short walk. Couldn't go to the shop due to shielding.

She now can barely walk at all. The gp and carers have all said this is down to no mobility /lockdown, being stuck in.

Even in the summer when things eased. She struggled to walk to the shared garden but often there was no seat so didn't venture out.

I took her groceries today and chatted through the window, another realitive normally does this but is poorly (non covid)
I've never seen someone who admitted didn't have the best mobility. To be almost crying walking a few foot.

Thesres probably thousands apon thousands more like this.
How is this fair.
In all honesty the last Yr has prob shaved 5 years off her!

so they might well be putting others in danger

No more so than anyone else (assuming masking and social distancing).

And if they’re all allowed to do their shopping, why shouldn’t the OPs mum?

The suggestions of wheelchairs are missing the point a bit. Wheelchairs don't help mobility and get your heart rate raised a little bit.

And if they’re all allowed to do their shopping, why shouldn’t the OPs mum?

I haven't read the other thread but you made it sound like the elderly person didn't NEED to go to the supermarket, they just wanted to? If that's the case the surely they shouldn't go? If we can keep the number of people in shops to a minimum then isn't that we should do to keep the staff as safe as possible?

I haven't read the other thread but you made it sound like the elderly person didn't NEED to go to the supermarket, they just wanted to?

I’m not the OP.

But how many of us actually NEED to go?

How many couldn’t do delivery/c&c/get neighbours to double up?

If the rest of us are allowed to shop for our own household (despite alternatives and not really needing to in the strictest sense), then why can’t the OPs mum?

Did the OP need to take her?

OP what are you suggesting, no lockdown for anyone?

Unless OP thinks that Great Britain could have somehow kept covid completely out (NZ style, which is quite rare in the world, and no well-connected large country has done it), then I'm not sure what other outcome would have happened to OP's gran.

I know it's sad. There are many sad outcomes.

If anyone thinks there is a risk of this happening to your relatives, Now would be good to find ways to support them to keep physically mobile as much as possible. Individual circumstances apply and all that.

Did the OP need to take her?

I’m not sure what your point is?

We’re not just allowing only those who absolutely need to go to the supermarket to go.

We’re allowing one adult per household access regardless of whether they have alternatives or not. The OPs mum fits that definition.

Whoops I didn’t realise this is going on across two threads.

My grandma is 85 and last spring was positively spritely. Always out and about, like you OP she lives in sheltered housing and was always up to something with her neighbours.

She fell in November and broke her hip. She hasn’t mobilised since. Now she’s not eating and is kept going with calorie drinks.

I think her life will be cut short by covid, not directly but as a result of the lockdowns and restrictions. Devastating.

It's very sad and not just for the elderly, my daunt is only 61, she has a condition which will be better in about another 18 months but the drugs to treat the illness absolutely decimate her immune system so she has been shielding. It will take an awfully long time to get her back to how she was even once she is cured and obviously it's been made 1000 times worse because of covid.

Having said that I do think there was an arguement to bring back shielding before the general population was locked down to maybe give the general public an extra week or 2 without schools closing or businesses because every single day missed earning or learning is a day completely lost. My daunt has shielded since September as we anticipated a rise in cases once kids went back. I picked her and dmum up the first weekend in September before my dcs went back to school and we had a lovely day out because we all knew it wouldn't be safe.

There is a balance and decisions to be made. If my elderly relatives were at the end of their lives I think I would respect their wishes with regards to being out etc and whether they chose to sheild or not.

And this my dears is why it is ok, indeed desirable, for elderly people to drive to somewhere safe where they can go for a walk. My mother goes for a walk every day and drives to wherever she thinks will be quiet and safe (as in flat and away from traffic, not covid-safe). She has driven further than MNers, her neighbours and the government would like, but she is still fairly fit and her mental faculties are still there. She was aware from the outset that staying indoors would be bad for her mental and physical health, covid or no covid.

Yes some people were told to shield, but it was extreme and they shoudl never have been told not to go out at all.

My dad’s mobility has declined. He’s in his own home and didn’t feel safe walking down the Lane he lives on during the summer lockdown as there were so many people walking down it whereas it’s normally quiet of people but busy with traffic. My sibling can’t get the treatment they need for a recently diagnosed condition which greatly increases their cancer risk. Not good.

Yes some people were told to shield, but it was extreme and they should never have been told not to go out at all.

Agreed. My neighbours are shielding. We live in a really quiet rural area, so at the beginning I suggested they had an evening walk, because I knew for a fact that they wouldn't come across a single soul. But they'd been terrified into believing that they couldn't possibly leave the house. And I'm afraid that many MNers would have encouraged them in thinking that.

Months on, and they are both very depressed, and the lack of exercise has almost certainly made the conditions they have that led to them shielding, much worse.

And I'm afraid that many MNers would have encouraged them in thinking that.

Yes, one very prolific doom and gloom poster back at the start of lockdown was insisting that it wasn't even safe to open windows in your home in case someone walked by outside and breathed out. I suppose it might be a theoretical risk but surely it is up there with the risk of getting hit by an asteroid in terms of being unlikely.

My fitness has gone, due to shielding and a health condition worsening so I can't even go for walks

My mother is in her 90s. She is wheelchair bound so fitness is neither here nor there, but she really enjoyed getting out and about to the shops pre Covid. When we went into lockdown she mentally deteriorated really quickly. I've taken her out for a drive 3 times a week for months now. It keeps her going to see the world, she sits in the car while I get any bits she wants and we drive round her old haunts on the way home. I can't imagine what her life would be like if she hadn't left the house for months

OP, that's so sad. I know how difficult it is, to see elderly parents decline. Mine are both gone now, but I witnessed some awful things towards the end of their lives, that still haunt me. There is an expression that some carers use: Mobility is everything. So true.

MIL (86) was starting to lose confidence in walking, as her legs weakened after weeks of lockdown. We explained to her that it is a case of "use it, or lose it" where muscles are concerned, and quoted the fact that towards the end of their lives, my parents were incontinent due to their legs not being able to get them to the toilet. We explained it was vital to go for walks, either up and down her garden, or around the block, with a mask. Luckily, she listened, and now walks 3 times a week. Her fitness has improved. So, it is possible for elderly to keep active, if they have the motivation (although sadly many of them give up in their latter years, Covid or not).