AQW 9846/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 06/11/2020
Answered On Date: 06/12/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health what checks and balances have been put in place in Health and Social Care Trusts to ensure people with complex needs and their carers are coping during this pandemic; and how many respite care requests have been refused over the past 12 months.

Answer:

Health and Social Care Trusts have maintained regular contact with service users and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, monitoring their needs and offering assessments and care planning to assist carers with their caring roles. Such contact has been undertaken by a range of staff including key workers, multi-disciplinary teams as well as the carers support teams either by phone, video link or, on occasion, in person.

The Trusts have also engaged with the independent and voluntary sectors, as appropriate, to seek ways to better support service users.

In addition, Trusts have provided short break provision where possible and they have offered Direct Payments to families in lieu of those services which have been reduced or paused as a direct result of the pandemic. Short break demand often will exceed capacity and in instances where this happens, the Trust will seek to negotiate a suitable solution with the family concerned. During the lockdown period (March-August 2020) many bed-based short breaks were paused in order to adhere to guidance to prevent Covid-19 transmission.

Only the Western Trust has reported refusing requests (7) for ‘respite care’ or short break provision over the past 12 months. Furthermore, it should be noted that, on occasion, families themselves turned down the opportunity to avail of short break provision due to family members shielding or because of concerns about cross infection.