PUP Councillor Dr John Kyle has expressed his support for the Care Partner initiative stressing how it would be of huge benefit to elderly care home residents.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News the retired GP said: “I do really commend the Health Minister Robin Swann for coming up twith his, this is an excellent idea.
“I think many places in Ireland and the UK should consider this and many families in Ireland and the UK would love to have the option of this idea. To have this for elderly and particularly for patients who are dementing, seeing family, seeing their children, their spouse, that they have known all their lives is very important. It’s important for their good and mental health,” he said.
“It’s important even from the point of view of managing their dementia and reducing deterioration. If you withdraw familiar faces, familiar people then the patients’ well-being suffers and their decline becomes more rapid.”
Dr Kyle said that in terms of the risks posed, “if you balance up the benefits against the risks I think that equation comes down firmly in favour of doing it.
“They say in palliative care they want to add life to days, as opposed to days to life. I think that is a very good approach to these things. For someone who is elderly and dementing, deteriorating, the quality of their life is more important than the actual length of it.”
Dr Kyle spoke of how care home staff take measures to make sure they don’t pass on the virus.
“There is no reason why a family member, a designated carer cannot do the same, take the same precautions and go in and see their loved one. The benefits are for the resident, for the family and it takes the pressures off the staff. The benefits in my mind far outweigh the risks from it.”
He continued: “There is no doubt about it that care homes and nursing homes are pushed. To my mind this should be a priority as this could make such a difference to residents. It may take extra work to get it up and running but once it is instituted, once the protocols are there and the family member has been trained and shown what to do it will ease the workload for care home staff.
“I would call upon care home owners and management to really make an urgent effort to implement this idea which is an excellent idea and make it a priority.
“I take my hat off to Councillor McAteer who has been championing this as well. Geraldine has been absolutely on the ball on this and has my good support.”
