‘Don’t take this place from me, this is a lifeline’

Ellen Guy, 69, from Abersychan in South Wales, talking to me in January about the Carers Hub she used to visit weekly

Tonight on @Channel4News – the profound impact day centre closures are having on some in lockdown

Many thanks for your kind comments about our elderly carers report from Pontypool tonight - and the profound impact lockdown is having on some.

V grateful to @carerstrustsew for their help with it.

With team @daibaker & @c4marcus - link here https://www.channel4.com/news/carers-facing-extra-challenges-during-lockdown

Original idea for this report, incidentally, was sparked by a @SeneddWales finance committee press release in Oct 2018 flagging a report about social care funding https://senedd.wales/laid%20documents/cr-ld11773/cr-ld11773-e.pdf
It contained some striking stats:
THREAD

I’d been meaning to follow up on the issue of older carers for some time. Eventually in January – with the help of Carers Trust South East Wales @carerstrustsew – we filmed one of their Wednesday get-togethers at the Torfaen Carers Hub in Pontypool

We met Tony Lewis, 85, caring for his wife Dorothy who has dementia; Diane Allen & her Mum Jean; Beryl Fisher whose husband has dementia; Ellen Guy whose husband had a brain haemhorrage 5 yrs ago.
It was clear how pivotal these Wednesday sessions had become to their social lives

The plan was to film again with some of them, all aged over 65, to complete the report - examining the pressures some were experiencing and the isolation which can be felt by unpaid carers. Then everything changed #COVIDー19

Last wk looking back over the interviews we’d filmed in Jan, one line about the Carers Hub from Ellen stood out: ‘This is a lifeline; don’t take it away from me’. Well it was taken away – and when we returned to see Ellen, it was clear just how much she missed the day centre

Ellen’s husband, Henry, hasn’t left the house since November. The haemorrhage has left him with slurred speech, says Ellen, & communication can be difficult: ‘To have a conversation with someone now, I’ve forgotten what it’s like & I don’t know whether I should worry about it’

We met up also with Diane Allen, main carer for her Mum Jean from Croesyceiliog. Diane sits at the bottom of the garden once a day, but Jean, shielding, is lonely and still grieving. Her husband died in 2018 and one of her sons in December.

Jean Rosser on shielding alone: ‘the hardest part is looking around and there’s nobody there. But I talk to my husband and my son – I’ve got their photos on the wall so I talk to them as I’m going around’ #c4news

Finally, we met Tony & Dorothy Lewis, taking their daily walk arm in arm through Pontypool Park. Dorothy has dementia and had daily care visits until Tony felt compelled to cancel them, fearful of risking any Covid infection being brought in by visiting carers..

...So aged 85, Tony is now caring full time for Dorothy: ‘My family are always concerned about me… that [without the carers] it’ll have an adverse affect upon me, but praise the lord so far it hasn’t’

In a recent survey of 5000 current & former carers, @CarersUK found:

• 70% of carers are providing more care due to the #COVIDー19 outbreak.

• 55% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I feel overwhelmed & I am worried that I’m going to burnout in the coming weeks”.

The @CarersUK report ‘Caring behind closed doors -
Forgotten families in the coronavirus outbreak’

https://www.carersuk.org/news-and-campaigns/campaigns/caring-behind-closed-doors

So thanks again to Tony & Dorothy Lewis, Ellen Guy, Diane Allen, Jean Rosser, & Beryl Fisher for their insights into life in lockdown for unpaid older carers - it’ll be some reunion when the @carerstrustsew hub in Pontypool finally has tai chi & tea back on the agenda...