CAMPAIGNERS are set to constitute a new organisation to support families with loved ones in care homes.
Julieann McNally, who spearheaded a campaign for an investigation into the dangerous conditions at Dunmurry Manor care home, has revealed plans to create a North of Ireland-wide organisation to tackle issues arising from care homes.
Ms McNally said that the new group, Care Home Advice and Support NI (CHASNI), will force statutory bodies to start working with families.
“We had started out campaigning around Dunmurry Manor but we can’t continue to focus on one care home,” she said.
“We’re formalising the organisation and offering support across the North. Hopefully we’ll be able to get funding and a premises to provide a platform for families to come and meet and support each other.”
The West Belfast campaigner said that she has contacted MLAs at Stormont with a view to creating and all-party working group on care homes.
“There is already and all-party group for older people in Stormont, but obviously there is nothing specifically related to care homes,” she explained.
“It would basically give a platform for MLAs to come together to discuss a common interests, which in our case is care homes and the issues coming out of care homes.
“We’re still seeing the same rhetoric that and the same failing that we had with Cherry Tree, Dunmurry Manor and before then. The system is well and truly broken and we’re still seeing that.”
Ms McNally, who has been a vocal critic of the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in care homes, said the current visiting rules will be a key focus for CHASNI in the time ahead.
She said that government guidelines on proposals for so-called ‘care partners’, which would allow family carers to visit their loved ones have “no teeth”.
“People haven’t seen loved ones eight and nine months,” she said.
“We had a care home on Sunday that stopped window visits.
“We’re engaging with the Patient Client Council and the Department of Health and we’ve had a number of zoom meetings of the last six weeks.
“The 5th of November was D-Day, so to speak, for the care partner concept to be implemented, but of course it hasn’t been implemented. There’s no teeth on the paper – it’s a guidance paper. Therefore, if it’s a guidance paper it’s down to private providers to implement it how they see fit.
“It’s useless and families are frustrated.”
