Families report that some care companies are shutting them out when they try to see disabled loved ones in supported living or residential care.
James O’Rourke was prevented from seeing learning disabled brother Tony during the lockdown last year.
Brothers James (left) and Tony O’Rourke, who were kept apart during the first lockdown
Former social worker James says the care firm that runs the premises where his brother Tony, 57, resides, kept family away for around four weeks from the block of 12 supported living flats in London.
Firm backed down
But when James challenged the company to show they had followed procedures in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), the firm backed down.
Under the MCA, social workers must hold ‘best interests’ meetings when someone lacks capacity.
James, 59, stressed that either he or 81-year-old mother Anna had the right to form a support bubble with Tony.
He fears it was only his specialist knowledge as a former social worker that prevented his brother being isolated.
Blanket bans ‘disgraceful’
James, who works for charity Learning Disability England, said it is “disgraceful” that care firms have “instigated blanket bans”.
The care company contacted James again last month, asking if the family would stay away.
But the firm acknowledged that James had the right to go on seeing his brother.
Madeleine Cowley is a former trustee of learning disability charity Hft.
She wrote in The Guardian last year of how she was forced to rely on video calls to keep in touch with 40-year-old son Thomas, who has Down syndrome and lives in residential care.
Supported living guidance
UK government guidance for supported living details how “visits with support bubbles are still allowed”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said “outdoor visiting, substantial screens, or visiting pods” should enable care home visits to “continue to take place”.
Related:
- Autistic children are facing a mental health crisis during lockdown
- Lockdown rules clarified for autism
- New virus rules are ‘discrimination’
- Coronavirus may decimate services
- Learning disabled die from lack of help
- Social care cut when it was needed most
- Virus deaths in care more than double
- Activists demand virus death figures
- At high risk of death, but denied tests
- Fightback against virus law care cuts
- Disabled launch legal fight to buy food
- Keep seeking medical help, doctor urges
- Families fight virus clampdown
- We can’t get food we need, say parents
- Councils ‘free to abandon disabled’
Published: 28 February 2021
