The safety and wellbeing of our residents and staff is always the highest priority at The Dower House

As restrictions surrounding Covid and testing have started to relax, we have been welcoming more visitors into the home and have been able to organise more activities involving speakers and musicians within the home, with this in mind we are changing our visiting policy in line with Governments ‘Living with Covid-19 strategy.

As part of the Governments ‘Living with Covid-19 strategy (COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) some of the key changes to testing and isolating relevant to The Dower House are:

• Staff in adult social care should test twice a week with lateral flow tests.
• Only visitors who are EFCG should test before visiting. They will not need to test more than twice a week. (This includes hairdressers, physiotherapists for example)
• Visitors to The Dower House (unless EFCG) will not be asked to test before each visit.

Although we can no longer request you perform an LFD before visiting or supply you with a test. We would prefer that you continue to do so, as performing these tests have proved to be instrumental in keeping The Dower House residents safe and well during the last two years.

We are aware that this reduction in testing could potentially lead to rising cases within The Dower House community. With this in mind, we are conscious that we need to revaluate our EFCG list and ensure that all residents have a named EFCG who will be able to visit should we have to close due to an outbreak. We have attached a form to this email, and we ask that this is filled in and returned to The Dower House for us to update our records with each residents EFCG and their details.

The Dower House defines an Essential Family Carer (EFCG) as:

“A resident’s family member or friend whose care for a resident is an essential element of maintaining their mental or physical health. Without this input, a resident is likely to experience significant or continued distress and/or decline.”

Although we have used the word family, we recognise that you may be a resident’s friend and not a family member. Also, we acknowledge that you may not see yourself as a ‘carer’ but as a partner or a supporter of your relative.

We will continue to complete risk assessments for visitors to The Dower House and update these as necessary including any changes as the guidance changes.

While visiting was restricted, we implemented a monthly Zoom call to keep families and friends informed about all that was happening within the home. As visiting is now easily accommodated, we feel there is now no need for these to continue, so the Zoom call we held in April was the last one.

We are currently discussing other ways we can gradually start to re-introduce some of the events that were commonplace pre Covid. We will update you on these events when details are finalised.

The last two years have been a testing time for residents, family, and staff. We are appreciative of the understanding and support you have shown us during this time. We hope by working together we can continue to support and care for our residents whilst enabling family members to be involved wherever possible.

Many Thanks

The Dower House Team