After closing our doors on the 19th March, we will once again be welcoming visitors to Barley View as of the 3rd September. With local restrictions lifted and our new purpose-built summer house ready to facilitate safe visits, now felt like the perfect time to once again welcome visitors into our home.
The new summer house has been custom built to provide a welcoming and above all safe environment for relatives to enjoy face to face visits with their loved ones. Our residents and their visitors will be accommodated in separate partitioned sections of the summer house to minimise the risk of infection. Rather than feeling clinical or sterile, we hope that the summerhouse will create a holiday home feel while keeping everyone safe.
We had originally planned to welcome visitors in early August but the imposition of local restrictions for large parts of the North West on 30th July meant we were forced to postpone visits in line with Government guidance.
When the pandemic hit, we quickly became aware that the reintroduction of indoor visiting would be a long time coming. However, outside garden visits (which have a lower risk of transmission) were not suitable for all our residents. Many homes have been doing outdoor garden visits, with residents sat on benches apart from the visiting families. However, as half of our residents are living with dementia, this free-flow outdoor visiting wasn’t a viable option. Also, outdoor visits without any cover would quickly become too cold or unpredictable given our British weather.
Instead, the best option was for us to create a visiting pod that was separate from the main home, and where the visitors and residents would not share the same space but would be easily able to see each other face to face and hear easily. The summerhouse is made up of two completely separate buildings that butt up to each other. We have retrofitted a shatterproof large full-width glass panel, which is at the perfect height for all residents whether they are in a wheelchair or our cosy fireplace armchair.
The summerhouse creates a summer cabin holiday home feel, rather than a clinical sterile feeling, yet still keeps everyone safe.
Families, who live in areas that are not in local lockdown/restrictions, can pre-book a 45-minute visit, one visit per resident per 2 weeks. This is going to be reviewed after 2 weeks. To make sure all 28 residents get a visitor, we can only have 1 visitor per fortnight at the moment.
To ensure we remain Covid19 secure, we have a full health screening checklist and a declaration form that visitors will complete on arrival.
We hope to create a dignified, private ‘face-to-face’ visit for each resident in a ‘home from home’ environment. Ideally, the resident and visitor after a time will no longer notice the glass partition dividing them and feel connected after such a long time apart.
“just seeing my son there, so close, and hearing his voice and seeing him face to face. It was just wonderful. You don’t notice the glass. We had such a lovely happy time.” – Barley View Relative
It will protect residents from touch and aerial transmission of the virus, and yet give a massive boost to their emotional wellbeing and health.
We want to take this opportunity to thank all our Barley View relatives, loved ones and friends for their patience, understanding and resilience throughout this entire process. We know this has been difficult and we can’t wait to welcome you back!
To arrange a visit, please call 01706 659917 to check availability and book in for your appointment. Please call Monday-Friday between 09:00-16:00.
You can also make an enquiry via email: adouglas@calico.org.uk
