Business Recovery Response to COVID-19: Care Advice Centre

Tell us about Care Advice Centre and what you do.

Care Advice Centre is a friendly, approachable team of independent social workers with vast experience of working within Adult Social Care. This gives our assessors a good understanding of the care and support system which can be complex and difficult to navigate. Some of our services include completing Mental Capacity Assessments, Benefits Advice, Needs assessments in line with the Care Act 2014, to mention a few. More of the services we provide can be seen on our website.

What challenges have you / your clients faced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As social work is involved with helping people live better lives, this is usually carried out in discussion with the person and pre-COVID this has always been in their specific living environment. During this pandemic it has not always been possible to visit people in their own homes or in care homes therefore a need to be creative with arranging assessments has been the new way of working.

Remote working has been a valued method of carrying out assessments. The virtual assessments have not always been appropriate for some people due to different reasons and therefore this has meant work needed to be postponed until such a time that access to the different environments can be gained.

Some of the care homes or family representatives have not always been able to facilitate virtual meetings, however for those that have been completed virtually this has been a useful tool.

How have you helped your clients overcome these challenges?

One of the biggest aids during this time has been the ability to have virtual meetings with those that are able. Some care home have been able to facilitate this with appointments arranged days in advance.

For some people it has been possible to meet in their back yard or socially distanced within the home environment.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could you offer?

Initially there might be a reluctance by people to meet in their homes and care homes might still be wary of having visitors in their care environments.

Support could be provided to people by reassuring them that as a professionals we consider other people’s health as well as our own and will continue to follow government guidelines.

What have been your highs and lows during the last 3 months?

The highs have been the willingness of some people trying to facilitate meetings even when they have not worked out as anticipated.

People appear to have been more tolerant during this time as they realise that everyone is in the same position.

There has been good joint working with professionals and family members.

There has also been a lot of phone advice with people calling back and requesting further support from Care Advice Centre.

There have been a lot of people realising they need to plan for the future and a surge in the number of people making contact for these different services.