My heart stopped as soon as I read the word ‘POSITIVE’ on the screen in front of me.
Unfortunately, because the Government isn’t prioritising people with learning disabilities who live in care homes for the vaccine rollout, it will be some time before I can rest easy knowing the people I work with are safe.As soon as I saw the test results, I went into ‘coronavirus outbreak mode’, which meant rolling out the measures we had practiced in our contingency planning.
It was an emotional rollercoaster of looking after all my residents and staff, and my own sadness at needing to isolate from my wife and three young children. People living with learning disabilities sit at number six on the ladder of priority – First is older adult residents in a care home and care home workers, second is people over 80 years old and frontline health and social care workers, then, third, over 75s, fourth is over 70s and fifth over 65s.
So when the Government says they’re prioritising people in care homes, that only extends to the elderly. When there are news reports about care homes, they only show videos of elderly people.But the residents of my care home aren’t elderly people. They’re people with learning disabilities and/or autism. They are vulnerable and have unique needs.
We got this far as one big team – together. Although life on the outside of the care home stopped for our residents, it was my promise to make sure life inside didn’t.