Retirement Housing - put measures in place so residents can socialise

Bring in regulations so that all providers of retirement housing have to come up with solutions so that residents can meet safely in indoor communal areas. The provider could set up the lounge with 2m distance, areas perhaps with screens, as is being done in hospitality, even just for a certain time period each day where staff can ensure the area is cleaned or provide cleaning materials so that residents can do it themselves. They should be required to carry out a risk assessment rather than leaving it up to them as to when and if they do one.

Providers should also be made to provide hand gel at each entry point.

Many providers have closed communal lounges and are only allowing residents to meet each other outside. With the coming winter months this is not tenable. These residents are independent and capable of following rules, they can go out to a cafe but cannot sit in their own lounge. This is enforcing isolation, the reason residents are in the facility is to have a community and it is important that they have this social contact, many do not have family. With home visiting banned they are even more isolated.

Residents and visitors are entering and moving around the building, touching doors, hand rails, lift buttons with no hand gel on site. The risk of sitting at a table, socially distanced, is no greater than them being in a cafe. Their mental health is extremely important, they should be consulted about the provisions made in their own home.