The team at Berehill House was recently honoured for their gruelling dedication to looking after the residents during the coronavirus pandemic, and won the Hampshire Hero Awards, in the Healthcare Category.
The home manager, Michelle Hart, reflected on the early days of the pandemic.
“Being a care worker has always been a very challenging job, but in March 2020 we had no idea of how much more challenging it would become.
No one really knew too much about Covid 19, when suddenly we were in a situation where one of our residents with no obvious symptoms was rushed to hospital and we were subsequently told a few hours later he was Covid positive.
Staff were petrified, we cried, we called our families and said we would not be home. At that very moment we did not know how long we would be there but we were committed to doing it.
Thankfully, clearer support came through and we were able to return to our homes and our own loved ones. But ot one day has gone past where staff have not gone over and above their job description during this pandemic.
We tried so hard to stay in touch with families. Weekly updates, using our own technology to FaceTime and WhatsApp to enable our residents to see their families.
Many families thought we were lucky we could still go home or still do the weekly shop. What they didn’t see was that many of us were banned from our own families, one carer lost both parents during the pandemic and still came to work.”
The pandemic continues, and we have learnt to live in the new ‘normal’. We care for our residents as we would for our own families, and do everything we can to keep everyone safe, well and happy.
