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Age UK East London are working on the frontline with those newly discharged from hospital – most with no care packages. They are also already opening a food distribution hub in Tower Hamlets
Jane Caldwell, CEO of Age UK East London comments: “It will pretty much be all hands on deck for the next couple of weeks and…it’s essentially a humanitarian response right now. Parts of the Care Act have been suspended and we are going to take residents information under the principle of duty to share but I will be clarifying this with health and social care stakeholders.
PPE – we have been promised but none has arrived. Currently we have gloves and aprons and some sanitiser – although hand washing is better. Frankly, many district nurses don’t have masks etc at the moment so it’s hard to complain – everyone is trying. What we have done is roll out on-line infection control training for all our staff, myself included, as a refresher.
Getting PPE to care staff is going to make or break this crisis. At the moment my staff are working with gloves, aprons and hand washing but as the hospitals become full of just CV cases, the stress level will increase. Over the next few days, staff, volunteers, taxi drivers etc are going to be asked to step up and we/they need to be protected so we can protect residents”.
Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest are continuing to support clients to stay mentally and physically well. The team are concentrating on staying calm and connected and looking after each other.
Vanessa Morris, CEO, says: “ We are willing to redeploy staff to support the Homerton and Whipps Cross as needed.”
Morris continues: “We are already in daily contact with Adult Social Care regarding capacity and need. The Wellbeing Network and Psychological Therapies Alliance will be contributing to developing an approach for this. We, and other partners, will want some of the resources to go to Recovery clients, most of whom will be on the SMI register. Some of these people won’t be accessing medical support; grassroots intelligence and the Community Hub will help identify them”.