A quarter of care home staff have considered counselling due to emotional impact of the coronavirus pandemic
Almost a quarter of care home staff in Wales have considered counselling due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their mental health. According to an investigation by Y Byd ar Bedwar programme, 26% of care home staff surveyed also said they had considered leaving their job during this period.
Workers from two homes in Anglesey and Carmarthenshire have called on the Welsh Government to provide greater support and to accelerate the distribution of vaccines to staff and residents.
“My message to the Government is don't forget all these homes, we're still here, don't you forget us,” said Helen Pope, assistant manager of Glyn Nest care home.
Ms Pope added: “It looks really bleak you know. You go home and you get a good cry out and you take everything day by day. ”
Lorrainne Dutton, Manager at Plas Garnedd care home in Pentraeth has called for the vaccines to be given more quickly. "I know how difficult your job is and I wouldn’t want to do it" she said, referring to the Welsh Government, "but you have to roll these vaccines out quickly.”
Responding to these claims on the S4C current affairs programme, the Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and the Welsh Language, Eluned Morgan MS, said that the Government has worked “extremely quickly” and that 95.1% of residents have received their first vaccine dose.
In an exclusive survey of 117 care home workers across Wales, 75% said the pandemic had affected their mental health.
Staff described the emotional impact of trying to comfort families who have lost loved ones, while social distancing, along with the stress that false positives from Covid tests can cause both staff and residents.
Carol Owen, the manager of Plas Garnedd care home in Llanfairpwll, told the programme: “I can’t tell you how angry and annoyed I am that these false positives are still happening.”
Carol Owen’s care home has had three false positive results since January 2021. She says that each of these "false positives" were from the PCR laboratory tests, and not from the lateral flow tests.
“As a result of this happening, we have to keep all the residents in their rooms and visits have to be cancelled in the pod, it all has a massive impact on the mental health of our residents."
Care home manager Lorrainne Dutton said: “There are days where I feel like I don’t want to go to work today, I don’t know if I can face it all today.”
She added: “The staff look tired. They are fed up, they just want to be with their family, like me. I just miss everyone terribly and I see no end to this.”
According to Lorrainne, Covid-19 restrictions have also increased the emotional strain on staff.
"It's always difficult when you lose someone because you build relationships with people here, but it's harder now because you can't comfort somebody. If someone's lost a mother, you can't put arms around them, you have to stick to the two meter rule.”
According to the survey, nearly 15% of staff said they were likely to leave their job in the next year.
Eluned Morgan MS said "It's not a shock to hear that people who work in care homes suffer from mental health problems because, of course, those on the front line may have seen more deaths than they have ever seen before, and that is going to affect them.
"We are determined to make sure that they have the help and support if they need it.”
Responding to the claims concerning false test results the MS said the Government has to “work with the tools that we’ve got."
“This is a new virus and of course if we had a test that delivered a more accurate result that we would use it."“I’m afraid that as a Government our priority is to take steps that protect those in care homes as opposed to taking any risk at all.”
The Minister also acknowledged there were many still waiting for the vaccine.
"There are some who refuse to receive the vaccine, which causes a problem, and others who missed their opportunity to receive the vaccine when it was offered to the care home. And so we are very keen and are asking all those who work in a care home to receive the vaccine.”
14,012 residents and 33,550 care home staff have now received their first vaccine in Wales, while there are 6,020 staff and 715 residents are still waiting for their first vaccine.
You can watch the full programme of Y Byd ar Bedwar at 8:25pm on S4C. The programme has English subtitles.