Susan is a home carer.

She feeds, bathes and toilets the elderly in their homes. Today half her clients had #COVID.

She takes two buses to collect PPE. On her day off. She says she’s not getting hand gel.

She’s paid £13 an hour.
#ClapForOurCarers https://www.channel4.com/news/low-paid-and-high-risk-home-carer-speaks-out-as-clients-and-colleagues-are-hit-by-virus-2

Dundee council says carers have access to hand sanitiser. Susan says it’s like gold dust.

But there’s so much more to Susan’s story..

Susan became a carer two decades ago. She has been caring for some of her clients for years. They are like a second family. She lies awake at night worrying she will carry the virus into their homes and they will die.

Susan works in a group of 9 carers.
 
They share responsibility for around 30 people in their own homes.

Susan claims four of the service users have suspected Covid-19.
 
She says six of the service users have tested positive for the virus. 
 
And one passed away on Monday night.

Susan’s team has been hit hard.
 
She says two of them tested positive for Covid-19.
 
Four are off work awaiting tests after showing symptoms. 

Just three from the team of nine carers remain in work, unsure who the virus will strike next.

Dundee council says home carers or their family members are being tested when they’re showing symptoms.

Susan and @GMB_union say they asked for the whole team to be tested urgently.

Susan: ‘I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m a carrier. Maybe I’m carrying it in to all these people. It keeps you awake at night.’

Background on testing:
https://twitter.com/c4ciaran/status/1247243347963584514?s=21 https://twitter.com/c4ciaran/status/1247243347963584514

Today I met Susan at the end of a shift - she’d come from an elderly man with suspected Covid-19.

She had taken him to the toilet to change him. She had cleaned up his bodily fluids. He had a bad cough. It was near her face. She was glad of her mask. It was a basic mask.

Susan would like a gown and a visor. She has neither.

Today she went into six households, three confirmed or suspected covid cases, three clear for now.

She fears she is carrying the virus into the homes of vulnerable people she cares for dearly.

Susan says two of the vulnerable people who have covid have no contact except the carers who come into their home.

‘We know we’ve took it in to them and the thought that you’ve carried something into somebody and made them really poorly, it’s gut wrenching.’

I asked Susan what she wanted the public to know about home carers. She said:

‘We’re on the frontline and we seem to have been forgotten about. We’re not looking for free coffees and what have you, just a bit of support and realisation of what we do, putting oursleves at risk.’

After a draining shift caring for three people with covid and three others, going home to home by foot and by bus, Susan said she was off to search for hand gel.

We at least managed to spare her that.

With thanks to Susan for having the courage to speak out. And my super team @JoshHo_ & @luciajwalker.