CHS Group, a Cambridge-based charitable housing association and social enterprise, has received support from local companies Go Glass and Coach House Joinery to install a COVID-secure visiting booth at its Langdon House care home in Cambridge. The visiting booth, which is made of glass, will enable the relatives of Langdon House’s residents to visit the care home safely and in line with government COVID-19 guidelines.
The booth has been constructed in Langdon House’s conservatory area and is fully accessible from the garden. During the summer,visiting families were able to use the summer house at Langdon House to visit relatives from a two-meter distance however, as restrictions tightened and the weather cooled, this option was no longer possible.
In need of a new way to enable residents to safely see their family members and loved ones during the second lockdown, the care home managers at Langdon House put out an appeal on Facebook and were immediately contacted by a small family-run Cambridge business, Go Glass, which offered to donate design materials and to construct the booth. Well-versed in COVID-secure structures, Go Glass has been working with many businesses throughout the pandemic to provide hygiene screening. Local company, Coach House Joinery also got involved with the project, providing the wood for the booth frame free of charge.
Clive Sparkes, Design Director of Go Glass, said: “When we saw the call out from Langdon House we immediately wanted to get involved and help. We wanted to create a partition that allows family members to come into the care home – without really coming in. We looked at different ways we could do this, and how we could make it look like it’s always been here, enhancing the room rather than looking like an out of place instalment. In the end we selected a lovely autumn leaf pattern for the bottom half of the glass which is very aesthetically pleasing, and have used special hygiene glass which helps prevent the spread of bacteria. We hope the residents and families of Langdon House find warmth and happiness from the structure.”
Clare Robinson, Langdon House Manager, comments: “We are enormously grateful for the generosity and sheer ingenuity of the teams at Go Glass and Coach House Joinery. It’s hard to say how long we will need it for, but we are so pleased that we have this temporary solution to enable our residents to see and speak to their families face to face. One of the real hidden costs of this pandemic has been isolation and loneliness, and care home residents have been some of the worst affected. We have been running many activities throughout the pandemic to try and combat this loneliness, but there’s really nothing better than being able to see and connect with your loved ones.”
CHS Group is a not-for-profit organisation, committed to providing high quality personal care through its housing and care services in Cambridgeshire. Find out more about CHS Group’s care services here: https://www.chsgroup.org.uk/housing-and-care-services-for-older-people/
