By Jenni Burton
Care home residents, staff and relatives have suffered disproportionately from the impacts of COVID-19. Much has been learned on an international level about the infection and how to reduce risks of transmission and protect residents. Homes themselves have gained invaluable insights on the recognition and management of the illness and how best to support residents during this time.
This guidance has been produced to collate that best practice from the frontline, to help support staff across the sector and the wider team who support the health and care needs of residents.
It was developed through the Scottish Government Care Homes Clinical and Professional Advisory Group (CPAG) and draws on wider networks of care home nurses, managers and clinicians and our collective experiences.
It also incorporates relevant learning from a recent rapid review of factors relevant to the management of COVID-19 in the care home environment in Scotland, analysing four care home outbreaks in-depth (full text available from: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/independent-report/2020/11/root-cause-analysis-care-home-outbreaks/documents/care-home-review-rapid-review-factors-relevant-management-covid-19-care-home-environment-scotland/care-home-review-rapid-review-factors-relevant-management-covid-19-care-home-environment-scotland/govscot%3Adocument/care-home-review-rapid-review-factors-relevant-management-covid-19-care-home-environment-scotland.pdf)
There is an infographic style poster (optimised for A3 colour printing), freely available to download from www.gov.scot/coronavirus/care-home-guidance, Infographics & Videos section, with accompanying plain text.
There is a brief promotional video for social media platforms, accessed from: www.vimeo.com/carehome/covidtwitter and a full-length 7-minute educational video available from: www.vimeo.com/carehome/covid
While referencing some specifically Scottish aspects, we hope that the key messages of this work will have much wider applicability and be of use to the long term care community.
Jenni Burton is Clinical Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine, University of Glasgow (@JenniKBurton)