The daughter who volunteered in her mum’s care home

When her mother moved into a care home, Lydia Loader took drastic measures to make sure she could continue to visit her.

Lydia said her father had been visiting and supporting her mum every day at her care home in Sheffield until March when visiting restrictions were brought in.

At the same time, the 32-year-old was furloughed from her job as an account manager and makeup artist with Clarins, so she decided to move home from Bristol to support her dad and volunteer at her mum’s care home.

‘I was allowed to work outside of my contracted hours in the care home and it was a really good insight for me because I had always been in to visit my mum as a family member and outsider.

‘But it is completely different going in and working, and seeing how amazing they really are with what they do. It meant that I could report back to my dad.’

‘I also moved back home to support my dad because he really was not coping because he couldn’t go in and see mum, so it actually helped him a lot because it meant I could come back into the house afterwards and report back and say what we did and how mum was feeling to give him an update.’

Lydia went back to work in June but decided to stay on at the care home, working one day which she fits around her full-time job.

She said her time at the care home has highlighted the difference visits make to the residents’ quality of life.

‘I liked it so much I carried on. The care home has been so flexible and so I either work on my day off each week or every other week.

‘The care home manager has been amazing. She has let me have so much training and so I’ve done my fire training and they are just brilliant and so flexible to allow me to work on Sunday if that’s the day that works for me.

‘I’ve got to know more of the residents who live there and some of them have been really down and can’t understand why their families are not coming in. It makes such a difference for them.

‘It affects the residents because they feel so down, it takes away the things that make them happy and so it makes them feel depressed and emotional and it does make a difference in their lives.’

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