End of Life in Care Home

Pollycat

If it really is only 2, are any of you closer to your Dad than the others?

My Mum is in a care home, I've not physically seen her for 7 months. My sister has had window visits until our county council recently 'strongly advised' against any visits at all.

If we were in the same, awfully sad situation and it was just one person allowed, there would be no discussion at all.

It would be my sister. She was mum's carer until she went into the home. She is - and has always been - the favourite (I don't mind this at all, she was the baby of the family). I know that Mum would want it to be my sister who she saw last.

JGB1955

Do all 4 actually want to visit?  That might not be as strange a question as you may think.

Aranyani

Can you offer to get a Covid test before you go in and watch training videos on how to wear PPE properly so that you minimise the risk to the other residents?  

4 at a time is asking too much, but 1 or 2 at a time with those precautions might be acceptable.  

You have to remember that they have a duty to keep the other residents safe, just as they have kept your mum safe.  How would you have felt if 4 adult children had come in from a high risk area to visit someone else when your mum was well? 

unforeseen

This is the .Gov policy

limit visitors to a single constant visitor wherever possible, with an absolute maximum of 2 constant visitors per resident. This, for example, means the same family member visiting each time to limit the number of different individuals coming into contact. This is in order to limit the overall number of visitors to the care home and/or to the individual, and the consequent risk of disease transmission

It is clear from that that it needs to be the same 2 all the time


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes

Savvy_Sue

I'd take a mix of things into consideration. For example, what personal situations are each of you in? If any of you are either at personal high risk of catching Covid, or living with those who are, then I'd let others go. OR if any of you are particularly 'out there' and therefore at risk of picking it up - working in the caring professions or teaching, for example. 

Then there's who Dad would want to see most. You don't have to ask him, I'd be surprised if you don't know. Mum would have wanted her boys there, Dad his girls. (Neither got what they wanted, but hey ho ... we'd all somehow managed to visit in the previous couple of pre-Covid days)

Plus I'd look at practicality. Unless you all live reasonably near, then why not allow those who can get there without crossing county borders to go? And who's got caring responsibilities that will make any travelling tricky? 

I know it's hard, but at least there are now technological solutions. 

Pollycat

unforeseen said:

This is the .Gov policy

limit visitors to a single constant visitor wherever possible, with an absolute maximum of 2 constant visitors per resident. This, for example, means the same family member visiting each time to limit the number of different individuals coming into contact. This is in order to limit the overall number of visitors to the care home and/or to the individual, and the consequent risk of disease transmission

It is clear from that that it needs to be the same 2 all the time


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes

I think this ^^^^ refers to general visiting. My Mum's care home intended one constant visitor only (before the revised restrictions).

At the end of that document, there is this sentence:

As before, any imposed visitor restrictions should have regard to exceptional circumstances such as end of life. ↩

but that 'arrow' does not take you to anything that mentions 'end of life' and different visiting policies.

It also may be worth noting that the link to GOV.UK applies to England.

The document also mentions different tier levels:

We don't know where the OP's Dad or any of the children are located. I'm not sure what 'High category' means.

Savvy Sue makes some good points.

The OP has not mentioned any discussion between the siblings.

unforeseen

At the end of that document, there is this sentence:

As before, any imposed visitor restrictions should have regard to exceptional circumstances such as end of life. ↩

but that 'arrow' does not take you to anything that mentions 'end of life' and different visiting policies.

It points you back to the section about local approach and dynamic risk assessment. 

In other words, each care home has to assess the risk and implement the measures that they consider appropriate for the situation. It doesn't have to consider end of life as an explicit thing. Whatever measures are put in place would be based on the guidance in that article. 
Whatever measures are implemented MUST consider the risk to the other occupants of the care home as the priority. 

Considering the article that I linked to deals with medium risk areas then the guidance given would be  considered as the minimum. 

Browntoa

Our local care home is only the same 1 person going each time with no changes . Hard for the families as they also do end of life care but they had to isolate a covid case earlier in the year who sadly died . 

Their risk assessment , their rules I'm afraid ( and yes it does affect me personally ) 

elsien

The full guidance is here.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes
However I would argue that the guidance refers to two constant visitors per resident. You are not talking about constant regular visitors, you are talking about  one off end of life visits. I would discuss with the care home if there is a way to get to dad's room while bypasses most of the communal areas. I would stress that it is a one off end of life visit and that you are not looking for all of you to be visiting regularly. 
It will depend on where you are and whether any local lockdowns are in place. But I would suggest there is a case for arguing that visits should be allowed in the circumstances as per an individual risk assessment for your dad and his emotional wellbeing. 

unforeseen

The article does cover end of life and makes the point that the same assessment process needs to be used. 
The risk isn't lessened because somebody is end of life