{"id":21121,"date":"2021-03-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=21121"},"modified":"2021-03-26T09:06:05","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T09:06:05","slug":"no-kit-no-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=21121","title":{"rendered":"Heroes of the year – care workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This week, on the first anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown, UNITElive is featuring some of the top stories we have covered on the pandemic and our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contributions, concerns and achievements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last April, we spoke to a care worker Jane*, who told UniteLIVE her story about lack of access to PPE — and how she bravely took matters into her own hands. Find out more in our feature below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO KIT – NO CARE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the very bedrock of our society and during the coronavirus pandemic they are literally risking their lives to keep our loved ones safe and healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Care work has always been dismally undervalued but now carers — like other underpaid and underappreciated roles such as supermarket workers and delivery drivers — have emerged as central heroes in this crisis. And they desperately need support \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from the government, from their employers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to stay safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane* works for a not-for-profit organisation that provides 24-hour supported accommodation for vulnerable people, such as those with mental health issues and learning difficulties. She tells UniteLive that their workplace has never been so fraught with anxiety \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both for colleagues and the people they care for as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor our residents who live in communal settings, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real fear of the virus spreading very quickly,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome of the homes are in old Victorian buildings which are hard to keep clean at the best of times.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course caring for people who are less able to handle the anxiety of lockdown comes with its own challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have concerns about the capacity of the people we care for to retain and act on new information, such as social distancing which has changed all our lives dramatically,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real challenge finding a balance between maintaining that kind of vigilance but also supporting and reassuring and helping to manage that anxiety.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality of lockdown is different for everyone, but for some it can reignite buried trauma, Jane explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome of the people we work with have been in prison or in secure wards before \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never a nice experience and lockdown is bringing up a lot of that emotional and psychological trauma back. They feel contained and claustrophobic.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PPE ‘unsustainably expensive’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An immediate concern for Jane and her colleagues is the urgent need for PPE, and while they have received some from CQC through central government, she was shocked to find that much of the protective kit was four years out of date (pictured below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The charity that Jane works for, as with all charities now during the epidemic, are under serious financial strain<\/a> as their fundraising income has plummeted — which has made it that much more difficult to acquire desperately needed PPE for staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Telegraph<\/em> reported<\/a> earlier this month, charities and care sector organisations are facing enormous costs as the price of PPE has spiked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGloves, they are up by 30% in price, aprons, they are up by 166%, but most strikingly we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a typical price increase for a standard pack of masks go up by over 1,000%,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Mark Adams, chief of one of the leading social care charities Community Integrated Care, told the Telegraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the National Care Association, a body representing Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s care sector, also highlighted the difficulties faced by care organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are making every effort to ensure their residents and staff are safe and the only way to do this is for them to have PPE,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen they are trying to source PPE they are either being told it has been diverted to NHS or they are having to pay much more for it, which they do. It is an unsustainable situation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane echoed these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe price of PPE is going up so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to impact on our organisation long-term,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told UniteLIVE. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re concerned about the third sector as a whole and how charities are going to cope not only with additional staffing but paying extra for PPE. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become unsustainably expensive.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaching out into the community<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every minute that the government has failed to supply care workers with PPE is another minute spent risking their lives, so Jane decided to take matters into her own hands \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by reaching out into her local community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the unique things about working for a charity is that we are embedded in our communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have good links in our communities which helps us to respond to urgent situations.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane linked up with a local man, Mark Binks, who has in turn created a network in his community of producers and suppliers to make face shields. With the help of crowdfunding, the project, called #Shields4Manchester, has been enormously successful to date, producing 10,000 face shields each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the last three weeks, Mark been providing PPE to care homes, pharmacies, to doctors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 surgeries, to local hospitals and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also received NHS approval to ensure that the PPE we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting is of the highest quality,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, thanks to community collaboration, Jane and her colleagues have a supply of shields (pictured below) to protect their faces from droplets from people infected with coronavirus, which is one way the virus spreads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
One of Jane’s colleagues wearing a face shield produced by community initiative<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

‘Put yourselves first<\/em><\/strong>‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Jane says she is proud of her community and the work they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done collaboratively to acquire PPE, she expressed a profound anger at the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to protect frontline workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a crumb of central planning. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re taking too long to connect with local producers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c producers who are literally sitting on PPE,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jane said, highlighting a number of domestic producers across the UK who are being snubbed by the government.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd also the government are just flat out lying,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she continued, pointing to the recent story of RAF planes bound for Turkey<\/a> to collect PPE whose mission descended into chaos after, it turned out, the commercial supplier in Turkey did not have enough in stock. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing politics with frontline workers lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For other workers in the care sector, Jane had a direct if difficult message for them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo kit; no care\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the hardest decision anyone has to make in the sector but our lives matter too,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bToday is International Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Memorial Day and for years trade unionists have been fighting for safe working conditions. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked in this sector with terrible terms and conditions and poor wages \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our status is treated with utter disdain for years and years and years and this is the final straw. Because we have families and loved ones too. And mainly we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re women \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going home to care as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy advice is to work collectively and demand from your management the protection you deserve. Also work with management collaboratively and tell them, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Look this is where we can source PPE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Go to your communities because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a source of strength for us all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shocking situation but I would say to anyone who works in care \u00e2\u20ac\u201c above all put yourselves first.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane urges people to contribute to the #Shields4Manchester initiative. You can find out more on the project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crowdfunding page here. <\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Name changed to protect privacy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hajera Blagg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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