Keeping Covid-19 Safe

Home care and keeping covid-19 safe is challenging when COVID-19 has presented continuing challenges to the care industry. Health, Care and Key workers at the frontline have had to learn to swim in the COVID-19 currents quickly. Lifeline Carers are good swimmers, and the whole team has responded and acted to go above and beyond in its approach and actions to keep our home care clients safe.

Early sourcing and resourcing of our Lifeline with PPE and providing them with the guidance they needed to follow, has helped us stay ahead. With the support of our home care clients and their families, observing the guidelines, has mean’t we have been able to keep families in touch throughout the ongoing situation.

It has highlighted to us again the benefits of home care, that living at home, with individual managed care, provides safe and happy outcomes.

This month more good news filtrates through, with 90-year-old Margaret Keenan the first-person to be inoculated for Covid-19, and administration of vaccines beginning on a large scale this week. The UK health and care sector will be all hands on deck.

It’s great news for us and our clients too, many in the age or high-risk priority groups, we expect to hear very soon through your GPs, when we can assist you in getting your vaccination.

But, when so much of the population remains vulnerable to COVID-19, we must all remain cautious and continue to observe the preventative regulations, to help save lives.

Our COVID-19 team, led by Christina Bassadone, Founder of Lifeline Carers, has ensured that all of our team, both Lifeline and office, are fully trained on infection control to understand the implications.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is in plentiful supply for all our Lifeline, which they access and replenish daily for each visit they make and their uniforms are all washed at a high temperature.

In addition, we keep the team updated daily, on any alterations to Government advice to ensure that our systems and processes continue safe delivery across our home care services.

Adaptations to our practices, in line with current Government advice, have been made, and we thought it would be helpful to re-iterate how you and our Lifeline Carers are following all our guidelines, so that together you and they can continue to keep you safe and happy at home.

Personal Protective Equipment Best Practice

We have created four home care client scenarios, with carefully outlined guidelines, for our Lifeline Carers team to follow when delivering care in our clients’ homes.

1 – Where a Client requires physical Personal Care

If a CareAngel is in contact with the client, providing our services for personal care such as washing, dressing and hair, then all our Lifeline Carers must wear:

• disposable gloves
• disposable plastic apron
• fluid repellent (type IIR) surgical mask
• eye protection

2 – Where a Client is in the COVID-19 ‘At Risk’ Category

Home care and keeping covid-19 safe we ensure If our home care clients are ‘At Risk’ or they, or someone they live with, has COVID-19 symptoms of a high temperature, loss of taste & smell and a repetitive cough, then CareAngels are required to wear:

• disposable gloves
• disposable plastic apron
• fluid repellent (type IIR) surgical mask
• eye protection

3 – When two-metre social distancing is not possible in the home

When a Lifeline Carers is unable to social distance to the advised two metres, with a home care client or household member, but is not required to carry out physical contact duties, and no one in the household has COVID-19 symptoms, nor is ‘at risk’, our Lifeline Carers must wear:

• Type II surgical mask

4 – When A client Tests positive for COVID-19

If caring for a client with a confirmed case of COVID-19, we will form a ‘cell’ group of Lifeline Carers who only provide care for that individual to avoid risk of spread. Lifeline Carers must wear:

• fluid repellent type IIR surgical mask (at all times) • overalls
• disposable gloves
• eye protection