Heartbreak and uprisings in care homes

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/02/heartbreak-and-uprisings-in-care-homes

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Letter: Refusing loved ones entry into care homes can be distressing and harmful in itself, reveals one letter writer

Rose Hall is far from alone (Letters, 27 October) in experiencing the heartbreak of a loved one losing themselves in the fog of degenerative cognitive disease. Too many of us are watching this act out at a distance because government guidance has refused us entry to care homes since March.

My mum’s care home is exactly as the two words describe – it is the place where she receives care and it is her home. Here’s the rub: in her eyes, I am her carer and daughter rolled into one. What problem does this government have with letting me into her home to do my care job when the Covid-19 risk can be safely managed?

My mum is 87 years old, with serious cognition issues. She asks me why she is in prison and for what crime, desperate to be reassured that she hasn’t hurt anyone. Our video calls are hit and miss, but she recently whispered that she was leading fellow residents in a great escape.

Since January she has experienced two hospital stays, entered a care home with no preparation, endured six weeks of total isolation – or solitary confinement, as she believes it to be – and has not seen her family since June. According to care home statistics, she has around two years of life left. She has been placed on death row with no right of appeal. Despite this, she is stirring an uprising! She, and many like her, are resourceful in finding ways to be heard and will succeed in exposing ministers’ failures.Name and address supplied