Admission to care home during coronavirus

[Pianokicker]

Hello

I'm looking to see if anyone has had experience of moving a relative into care during the coronavirus outbreak. Did the care home arrange and or adminiter a swab test for you or did you have to arrange this yourself?

Thanks

Do you have a relative being moved.is it from home or hosputal. Might be worth asking the home what they arrange.

Thanks, they are currently at home but a move to care is inevitable soon. I've talked to the homes and it all seems a bit random, some will take residents and test them in situ as it were, others have said we'd need to arrange the test beforehand and for it at home. I was just wondering how people had found the process. Of course they will still isolate the resident initially for 14days, but I wonder what would happen in the homes where they take the resident in and then test and get a positive result! It sounds mad but that's the process being suggested by some homes.

We did it a few weeks back. In the end it was from hospital due to an emergency. The care home wanted a test done first but it turns out it wasn’t done. They isolated for 14 days anyway, but she got out sooner because the whole home was tested. It was a bit of a mess in terms of communication.

Isolation is tough, so make sure you have ways to contact your relative set up. We sent ours in with a tablet with FaceTime on auto answer as she can’t use a mobile phone.

The government guidance is online but homes seem to be interpreting it differently.

If you do a test at home there’s still no guarantee that your relative won’t get it on the way to the home so it’s always a risk for the home.

Thanks pea, I'd considered the possibility of my relative contracting the virus in the interim if we did the test, but a couple of places I spoke to were OK with that.

Unfortunately my relative's cognitive function means that any use of technology is extremely difficult, you can't really talk on the phone anymore 😔

That’s a shame @pianokicker . Would it be helpful for them to hear your voice or would it be confusing? We have FaceTime on auto answer as my gran couldn’t work any technology, but she understands that we’re on a phone not in the room. It can be very disorienting being in a home with people and masks. Is there anything you can do to make it easier for your relative? Bringing some objects from home, photos or a stock of favourite sweets? We have supplied the care home with a book of photos and words so they can talk to Gran. Because of coronavirus they sometimes want these things to sit for 3 days before letting them in the home so it might be worth planning before your relative moves in.

That's good advice pea, I'm need to.think about stuff like photos, short little letters and so on.