Care Homes: Dementia

(asked on 30th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of care home visiting guidance on the health and wellbeing of care home residents with dementia.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 20th October 2020

We are aware that limiting visits in care homes has been difficult for many families and residents who want to see their loved ones, particularly for people with dementia.

As part of the Adult Social Care Winter Plan (published on 18 September) we have set out tightened infection prevention and control measures to enable visits to continue safely. The Winter Plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-social-care-coronavirus-covid-19-winter-plan-2020-to-2021/adult-social-care-our-covid-19-winter-plan-2020-to-2021

These measures build on the visiting arrangements published on 22 July 2020 that allows local decision making, based on the assessment of the Director of Public Health and the care provider. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus

Care home providers should develop a policy for limited visits (if appropriate), in line with up-to-date guidance from their relevant Director of Public Health and based on dynamic risk assessments which consider the vulnerability of residents. This should include both whether their residents’ needs make them particularly clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 and whether their residents’ needs make visits particularly important.

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