Wick daycare centre is getting ready for reopening
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A popular Wick daycare centre is preparing to welcome back vulnerable older people after being shut for more than a year because of the pandemic.
Staff at the Laurandy Centre have kept up regular contact with service users through home visits and other activities but have now been given the go-ahead to open the building again.
The centre closed its doors during the first lockdown in March 2020. Staff are now working towards reopening it over the coming weeks.
"We were still keeping in regular contact with everybody and making sure that they still felt part of the community," manager Tracy Mackay explained.
Located at the airport industrial estate, Laurandy is a third sector organisation providing day support for vulnerable older people in need of care. It is registered with the Care Inspectorate and commissioned by the NHS under contract to provide a day support service.
There are 13 staff and the building can accommodate more than 20 users daily.
"We are registered for 24 a day but we won't be reopening at our full capacity," Miss Mackay said.
She pointed out that, with the building closed, the team had helped users and their families in a variety of other ways.
"The staff have adapted very well," Miss Mackay said. "Everybody realised that you couldn't just stop the service so the staff have been doing social home visits, garden visits, telephone calls and deliveries of activity packs, and the community has been good."
The Norseman Hotel and the Harbour Chip Shop donated meals which staff then delivered to users. "A local football team donated biscuits and cakes and crisps that we could deliver to everybody," Miss Mackay added.
The social home visits varied between one and two hours. "The staff would go in groups of two, obviously maintaining their physical distancing and wearing their PPE [personal protective equipment], and they would do activities.
"They gave the families respite. Some of the families are reaching crisis point and they needed that support. It allowed them to leave their loved one for a couple of hours, knowing that they were being supported."
Miss Mackay added: “We are a regulated care service but we are still a charity. The NHS commissions the service, so they pay us so much to provide it, but that only covers so much of the expenses – so anything else then we have to fundraise ourselves.”
Laurandy's reopening plans were accepted during a remobilising assurance meeting at the end of April. The online meeting was attended by Jackie Hodges, the NHS Highland service lead for adult social care, as well as the Care Inspectorate and other NHS representatives.
The reopening plans involve risk assessments for the daily routine of operating the service within all appropriate infection control procedures as directed by government guidelines.
Referrals are also up and running again and anyone interested should contact the social work department on 01955 604134.
