A PRESCOT councillor warned of "deteriorating mental health of care home residents" as the local authority discussed ways of allowing visitors to care homes.

Visits to Merseyside care homes could soon be allowed again as health authorities try to balance infection risk with residents’ mental health.

A Knowsley Council committee heard that care homes in the borough were looking at ways of allowing safe visits during the national lockdown.

Helen Meredith, the borough’s chief nurse, told the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee: “We have just had some recent guidance that’s just come out yesterday that says we do need to reintroduce visits into care homes.

Reintroducing care home visits could involve the use of “visiting pods”, screens or windows, but councillors and health officials agreed it was important for residents’ mental health that family members were allowed to visit care homes again.

Prescot South Green councillor Jo Burke said: “We are seeing a lot of reports of deteriorating mental health of care home residents.”

St Helens Star:

Cllr Burke

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But while he agreed that visits were important, council safeguarding officer Paul Dalby emphasised there was a balance to be struck between risks to mental health and the risk of COVID-19 infection.

He said: “What we know is the more you increase visiting, the more you increase spread.

“There is a real dilemma at the heart of this about quality of life and people having choice about the risks they take.

“But the difficulty in care settings is it isn’t just the families’ or individuals’ risk to take. It can affect other families and people who work there.”

Underlining that risk, the committee also heard that there had been 130 infections and six deaths in the borough’s care homes during the second wave.

Added to the 240 infections and 73 deaths during the first wave, these figures mean half the borough’s care home residents have had Covid-19 and more than 10 per cent of residents have died of the virus.

The government’s official guidance leaves it up to individual care home providers to decide how best to facilitate visits.

The guidance states: “Receiving visitors is an important part of care home life. Maintaining some opportunities for visiting to take place is critical for supporting the health and wellbeing of residents and their relationships with friends and family. 

“Care home providers, families and local professionals should work together to find the right balance between the benefits of visiting on wellbeing and quality of life, and the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to social care staff and vulnerable residents as we enter national restrictions.”