Don't make us miss a last Christmas with our loved ones: Families make desperate plea amid fears they won't be able to visit care home relatives

Nine in ten relatives of dementia sufferers fear they won’t be able to see them at Christmas.

The research from Relish – a dementia wellbeing company – also found that half fear this festive period will be their loved one’s last.

It highlights the importance of the Daily Mail’s Christmas campaign for care home residents to be reunited with their loved ones through routine visitor testing.

Around 70 per cent of the country’s 410,000 care home residents have dementia.

Experts have warned that visiting restrictions have led to a sharp decline in their physical and mental health since March.

This contributed to more than 5,000 excess deaths among those with dementia during the first wave of the virus.

The survey also revealed that more than a third of family members are concerned about their friend or relative being alone over the festive period, with 29 per cent saying that because of coronavirus it will be their first Christmas apart.

Restrictions on care home visits have left families of people living with dementia fearing they may not be able to see loved ones over the Christmas period

The poll of more than 1,000 adults in October and November also found that nine in ten are anxious about the long-term impact of lockdown and isolation on their friend or relative’s wellbeing. Around four in ten said their loved one is unhappier now than they were at the start of the year.

Ben Atkinson-Willes, who founded Relish in 2010 after trying and failing to find something that he could do with his grandfather when he developed Alzheimer’s, said: ‘With more time spent apart, it is understandable that friends and family caring for loved ones with dementia may feel helpless and anxious – it is a particularly difficult time.

‘And whilst there can never be any substitute for being in the company of your loved one, knowing how you can support their wellbeing and joy, even from afar, can help alleviate some concerns.’

Campaigners and academics are offering advice for people wanting to support the wellbeing of people with dementia during the winter lockdown. 

This includes giving ‘daily moments of joy’ through phone calls and letters, and encouraging the person to stay physically and socially active. 

Dr Simon Evans, principal research fellow for the Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester, said: ‘The restrictions put in place as a result of Covid-19 can have many negative impacts for people living with dementia and their families, including isolation, disrupted routines and a lack of cognitive stimulation.’

Experts say that for many with dementia, family visits are the only thing keeping them tethered to the world and to their memories. Doctors have warned the lack of visits is causing a huge decline in patients’ cognitive function, with some ‘losing their ability to eat, drink and speak due to isolation’.

The Alzheimer’s Society said that locking patients in care homes was doing more harm than good, and the visiting restrictions were ‘losing lives, not saving them’.

Around 70 per cent of the country’s 410,000 care home residents have dementia, with experts warning that visiting restrictions have led to a sharp decline in their physical and mental health

Fiona Carragher, from the charity, said: ‘Family carers aren’t just visitors, but the people who know their loved ones best, know how to get them to eat, laugh, take their medicine – they’re keeping their loved ones tethered to the world.

‘People are fading away, giving up with nothing to live for, nothing to look forward to. We need to protect people in care homes from coronavirus, but locking them in is losing lives, not saving them.’

With little over a month to go until Christmas, some councils are taking matters into their own hands to help visitors reunite with loved ones in care homes. On Monday, Matt Hancock promised to roll out visitor testing to all care homes in the country by December 25.

But so far, only 20 homes have received tests under a pilot scheme run by the Department of Health. Instead, some councils are choosing to use rapid tests allocated to them by the Government to set up their own care home visiting programmes. Yesterday Hammersmith and Fulham announced visitors will get on-the-spot Covid-19 test results over the festive season.

They will be swabbed outside the care home and if it comes back negative 30 minutes later they will be allowed inside, and may be able to enjoy long-awaited hugs with their loved ones.

Public health directors in York have now followed suit, yesterday announcing that they hope to extend testing for care home visitors in time for Christmas.

Facing eviction... for unauthorised visit 

By Chris Brooke 

A great-grandmother facing ‘eviction’ from her care home over an unauthorised visit is now in hospital.

Dementia sufferer Elizabeth Bow, 78, was asked to leave the home after management claimed family members broke visiting rules.

Her police officer daughter Denise Hobbs, 53, said her mother has now been admitted to hospital with a chest infection. 

She revealed that on Tuesday, the day Mrs Bow was originally due to be ‘evicted’ from the home, she was taken to hospital and put on antibiotics and oxygen.

Dementia sufferer Elizabeth Bow, 78, was asked to leave the home after management claimed family members broke visiting rules. She is now in hospital but her condition is improving 

Mrs Hobbs said her mother was improving and would not return to Aspen Hill Village in Leeds.

She said: ‘Mum is in hospital now being treated for a chest infection. After everything else this is an additional stress and worry which she, or us, didn’t need.

‘Luckily mum seems to be okay and getting better so hopefully we can get her out soon.

‘As far as I’m concerned she is done at Aspen Hill now, I don’t want her to go back there after everything they have done. We’ll find somewhere else for her to go.’

Earlier this week, Mrs Hobbs accused the home of unfairly taking action against her mother after an unscheduled visit on October 4 when she allegedly broke rules by trying to speak to her through an open patio door.

She said: ‘I have completely lost trust in the home, I don’t see how they can justify a decision like this.

‘My mum is innocent but has become the victim.’

Aspen Hill gave Mrs Bow more time for an ‘alternative placement’ to be found but refused to back down following public criticism.

A spokesman said: ‘The resident was asked to leave because her family refuses to comply with our visiting policy. We appreciate that restrictions placed on visiting are exceptionally difficult for our residents and their loved ones.

‘However, we have a duty of care to ensure the safety of all our residents and to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus into our homes.’

Landmark legal case into ‘policy failures’

By Mario Ledwith 

Ministers will be forced to explain why thousands of care home residents died from Covid-19 after a judge gave the green light to a landmark legal case.

A judicial review was granted after two daughters told the High Court how their fathers fell victim because official policies put them at risk.

Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris said authorities were to blame for a ‘shocking death toll’ by deciding to release hospital patients into care homes without precautions.

They told the court that Health Secretary Matt Hancock and health bosses had overseen ‘one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures of recent times’.

Dr Gardner’s father Michael Gibson, 88, a retired superintendent of births, marriages and deaths, died after his Oxfordshire care home was pressured into accepting a positive patient. The virologist, from Sidmouth, Devon, was forced to say goodbye to her father through a window on the night before he died in April.

Michael Gibson, 88, died after his Oxfordshire care home was pressured into accepting a positive patient

Miss Harris, 57, says that her father Don, 89, a former Royal Marine, was one of 24 residents of a Hampshire care home who died in May after a Covid-19 outbreak. His care home had accepted several people discharged from hospital.

Dr Gardner and Miss Harris are not seeking compensation but want the Government to acknowledge how it failed to adequately protect care home residents in the early stages of the pandemic.

The duo claim that NHS England, Public Health England and Mr Hancock breached the human rights of care home residents by failing to take precautions, such as implementing mass testing.

Sir James Eadie QC, representing the Government, defended its approach and said decisions were taken ‘at a time of the most exceptional difficulty’. Justice Linden gave the Government and health bodies until January to file grounds of resistance before a hearing later next year.