What Can I Do To Prevent Contracting The Virus?

Since the latter end of 2019 COVID-19 has quickly swept the globe, infecting millions of people and sadly killing hundreds of thousands of those afflicted. Unfortunately, the global pandemic continues to impact the UK and the billions around the world. That is why we have written this article to help our residents and the ageing population of the UK [as well as the rest of the world], by providing advice and insights on how to best maintain your health during this critical time and prevent contracting this horrible virus.

Health and wellness tips for senior citizens

As the lockdown came into force back in March of this year, many considered the implications on mental health, as well as your physical wellbeing. We are here to offer guidance so that you too can reduce the risk of contracting this horrible virus as well as maintain an active lifestyle and healthy mind.

 

Mental Health & Physical Wellbeing

As a care home that specialises in degenerative mental illnesses like Dementia and Alzheimer’s, we always look to facilitate the needs of those in our care by making sure that they stay mentally active. From our experience the following things have proven to successfully help people over the age of 65 maintain a healthy mind and body as well as combat and prevent physical and mental conditions from developing or manifesting, such as; anxiety and depression.

  1. Exercise: Whether you go for a walk or run, go to the gym / home-gym, or take part in a sport, regular exercise has been shown to improve both mental and physical health. Exercise releases endorphins, which elevates your mood, additionally studies have shown that regular exercise also generally reduces stress and your chances of suffering with other illnesses and conditions, such as depression, anxiety, heart disease, It has even shown signs of slowing down illnesses like Alzheimer’s from advancing. This in turn means your body is more capable of battling viruses like COVID-19.
  2. Diet: Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet, means that you will be receiving all the nutrients the body needs to function at optimal levels. In turn this will help to boost your immune system, which is what helps to fight viruses and infections, as well as help maintain normal bodily functions. Having a healthy and balanced diet. is not to say that you cannot have a drink or a piece of chocolate, you can, the trick is everything in moderation.
  3. Do not be all-consumed by news articles: Unfortunately, there is a lot of “fake news” out there, and whilst the government and many corporations are doing everything they can to combat this, it has a tendency to spread unnecessary, wide-spread panic. Paying too much attention to news articles, fake or otherwise, can unnecessarily drastically increase anxiety and fear.
  4. Regularly clean and disinfect: The UK and the rest of the world is learning more and more about the virus every day, and studies have shown that the virus can manifest and remain on certain materials longer than others. That is why we encourage everyone, especially our residents, staff, and visitors, to use PPE, was our hands or use hand sanitiser regularly and ensure that they clean regularly. In the case of our residents, our staff are on-hand to make sure everything is sterilised and regularly disinfected, in addition to being regularly cleaned to ensure we prevent the spread as best we can.

 

Social Distancing

A key component to preventing the contracting and spreading of the virus is to maintain social distancing: a minimum of 2 metres apart from one another or, in a care setting, 1m where completely unavoidable whilst wearing PPE. This does mean that sadly, if you or a family member is in our care, you cannot hug, kiss and embrace them, there are some positives that we feel you should bear in mind and take solace in:

 

  1. You can still socialise with family and friends in person so long as you maintain social distance, you can see your loved ones in our care via window visits.
  2. Video calls: via software and applications such as; Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp and Zoom (which our Activities Coordinators can assist you with), offers you the opportunity to continue to regularly interact and see your friends and family.
  3. Phone calls: we have implemented a line onto each unit solely dedicated to resident-family contact.

 

Hobbies

Embracing new hobbies, or even finding time for long-standing ones, has helped prevent and shown signs of aiding in battles with mental health. Taking on hobbies like, crafts, sports (like bowls), reading, or even learning a new skill, keeps the mind active and boosts serotonin levels (the happy chemical produced by the body). Furthermore, as it is something that you enjoy, you will find that your dopamine levels also increase (pleasure) caused from the enjoyment you experience, which in-turn boosts your serotonin levels as well. All of which directly helps your mental wellbeing.

Speak with us today

Frequently Asked Questions

How can we keep in contact with our loved ones in your care?

We have implemented a phone line on every floor at our homes which is dedicated purely to resident-family contact, the number will be provided on admission.

There is an IPad on every floor which is dedicated purely to resident-family contact whether it be via Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp or Zoom, our Activities Coordinators are on hand to assist with this.

There is also window visit slots available at our homes so you can see your nearest and dearest, our Admin teams are on hand to assist with bookings. Lastly we have a Facebook page ‘Highpoint Care Ltd’ which is regularly updated with posts so you can see the activities your loved ones will be enjoying in our care.

How can we see a home we wish to admit a loved one to without visiting?

Our Admin team will be more than happy to assist to you with this, you can book an appointment with one of our Activities Coordinators in which you can have a virtual tour of the home in question seeing the various areas of the home you desire, whether it be your loved one’s prospective bedroom, the kitchen, the lounges, the cinema room, the pub room, the hair salon, reception area and our landscaped gardens. You can see the activities our residents enjoy via our Facebook page ‘Highpoint Care Ltd’.

During these times, do you stop residents going outside?

Absolutely not. We wholly encourage our residents to go into the gardens and take part in outdoor activities when the weather permits, we believe this is paramount to both the mental and physical health of our residents.

How often do you clean, sanitise, and disinfect your care homes?

We have a team of staff at each of our facilities whose role is solely to continuously maintain high standards of hygiene.

They clean and sanitise all areas of our homes numerous times daily: this is not only for health and safety reasons, but also to ensure that we reduce the chances of anyone, be it residents, visitors and staff, within our homes contracting COVID-19.