Healthwatch Sefton, as your independent champion for health and care, would like to hear from YOU about your experience of what it’s been like for you and your family.

During this pandemic, we have not been able to plan our Enter and View visits into care homes and, as a result, have not been able to talk to you, your relatives, or staff about how care is provided within care homes.

Visiting is a central part of care home life. It is crucially important for maintaining the health, wellbeing and quality of life of residents. Visiting is also vital for family and friends to maintain contact and life-long relationships with their loved ones and contribute to their support and care.

With guidance relating to visiting changing again earlier this month (8th March 2021), it’s important that we listen to you to find out what the impact has been on your relative(s), friends and how restrictions put in place to keep everyone safe have impacted on you and your wider family.

We are asking people, whether they be a relative or a friend, to share their feedback with us so we can understand what it has been like for you and your family and friends during this time. We can then get a picture of the impact the pandemic has had on people who have been living in care homes.

We are also welcoming feedback from relatives and friends who may not live local but have someone they care for in one of our Sefton-based homes.

It would be really helpful to find out about the following experiences but, honestly, we just want to hear your story:

• Has the home supported you to keep in touch during this difficult time? / How you have been kept up to date on the health and well being of your relative or friend?
• Do you know what support has been provided to your loved one?
• Have usual activities taken place?
• Has your family member had access to the health and care they have needed?
• We know that the visitor restrictions in place have been difficult. What has this been like and how has the home been able to support you to visit?
• We understand that not being able to have contact with your loved one will have impacted your own health and well being. What has this experience been like for you?  Has it impacted on the health and well being of your family member or friend living in residential care?

All feedback shared is anonymous and you will not be identified within the report or to the residential setting. It would be helpful to know the name of the home your family member or friend is in but you don’t have to share this with us.

After reviewing all of the feedback that you have shared with us, we will produce a report to show those working in the care sector how those they care for have been supported. We will also look at what hasn’t worked so well so we can learn from your experiences and look at how services can be improved in the future.

Please use the following web link to share your story: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Care-Homes-Your-Story-Your-Say

If you don’t want to fill in this form and would prefer to speak to someone about your experiences, give us a call on 0800 206 1304.

We will keep this link open for one month and then we will review the feedback we have received.