How penpals are lifting spirits at this Yorkshire care home

By the time a national UK lockdown was called on 23rd March, Fulford Care Home in York had already tightened restrictions, closing its doors on 12 March in an effort to shield residents inside from coronavirus.

With old age being a high-risk factor for the novel Covid-19, the decision to isolate elderly residents and pause visits might have been sensible, but it certainly wasn’t easy, says care home director Elizabeth Hancock:

“We spend all our time trying not to isolate our residents. It’s one of our key objectives, and suddenly we’re trying to isolate them...it goes against everything we try to do... and that’s quite hard”.

Faced with the reality that residents could be without outside contact for weeks, even months, Elizabeth was struck with a simple idea to mitigate the impact: bringing the “outside in” by asking local people to write letters to the home’s isolated residents.

Within hours of posting a simple message on a couple of local Facebook groups, Elizabeth’s message garnered hundreds of shares. Within days, letters began flying in from local schools, nurseries and residents, followed by cakes, gifts and produce from local businesses.

Emails arrived from all over the world, Easter eggs and other treats were dropped on the doorstep and handwritten post came through the door from places as far-flung as France and the Netherlands. Elizabeth now estimates that the home is averaging eighty plus letters a day:

“The response has been huge - cakes, flowers, local shops dropping off stock. Phenomenal…Anne, who works on reception - I’m thinking of getting her a postman’s outfit!”

In order to minimise any risk of viral transmission, staff are “isolating” letters for several days as a precautionary measure, before distributing them among the home’s 28 residents - a process Elizabeth says is “totally bizarre” but “a nice problem to have”.

The impact of the post on residents, she says, has been incredibly moving:

“My great aunt lives with us...she's usually my biggest critic, and even she said Lizzie can I have some paper and envelopes, I want to write back!”

Some of the home’s residents are no longer able to read the letters for themselves, yet the post is still reaching them in other ways:

“We’ve got one lady with dementia - she used to be a school teacher. The other day she received a picture of two children and their dog, and she loves children and dogs. She was sat stroking the letter and talking to it all afternoon. I saw her the other day, too… someone had given her one of her letters, and I know she can’t actually read that letter. But to her, she was reading that letter. She spent the whole afternoon folding it up and opening it to look again”.

Far from stopping at a single letter, many writers have now struck up regular penpal correspondence with residents who were mere strangers a few weeks ago.

It’s correspondence that Elizabeth believes has reciprocal benefits during a time when so many people are struggling with anxiety.

In her original call-out on Facebook, Elizabeth listed (with permission) the first names of every resident in the home, asking any potential letter-writers to pick a name and send a personal letter addressed to them.

In response, several letter-writers have nominated residents who share names with deceased friends and relatives. It’s helping people go beyond a simple gesture to actually “make an emotional connection with the residents”, says Elizabeth.

And though she jokes that her staff “could kill” her over the volume of post they’ve had to sort through, Elizabeth says she’s seen “a huge difference as well in the morale of the staff”.

The lockdown has also brought another blessing in disguise to the home, with staff now having more free time to spend with residents. More time to have quality chats, says Elizabeth, is crucial during a time of such uncertainty.

The coronavirus crisis has naturally brought its share disappointments too, of course. Before the lockdown,the family-run care home had been planning a garden party to celebrate their 30th anniversary in April.

Though the event has now been cancelled, Elizabeth can see a potential positive: when they’re finally able to host it, the guest list will hopefully be padded out by new friends made through the penpal correspondence currently taking place:

“By the time we get to the other end, [of lockdown] all these people writing that'll have got to know residents over the next three to six months will be able to come”.

She hopes, too, that the end of lockdown will present a wider chance for the public to reflect on the isolation that elderly people often suffer even during times of normality:

“When we've all been forced to stay in….come October, November, when we can go to the pub and meet, I just hope there'll be a certain amount of people who think - a lot of older people who live like we did all the time. And maybe we should just create some good habits to carry on... people say ‘oh well that’s just the care home’, but actually, care homes need to be a part of the community too”.

She adds, too, that it’s not just the elderly who suffer from isolation. Though naturally exacerbated by new social distancing rules, loneliness is a problem endemic across age groups, at all times of the year.

Though the coronavirus pandemic has, and continues to be a devastating event, Elizabeth hopes that social isolation may conversely bring people closer together than before:

“We’ve all lost a lot of contact in how we maintain relationships these days. And suddenly we've all got this time... I think it’ll teach us all a good lesson”.

The home is planning to hold back some of the letters and release them gradually to residents over the coming weeks to stave off boredom and feelings of isolation.

Though they appreciate everything that’s come their way over the past couple of weeks, Elizabeth is now trying to direct well-wishers to write to Fulford’s staff, send post to their own local care home or write to someone who might be isolated in their community:

“I would ask people to send them [letters] to their local care home. To other people that they know live on their own at home. Send them a letter, tell them that you're thinking of them, when you deliver it, smile, wave, say hello - that might be the only person they see all day”.

She hopes that other care homes and local people will take up similar schemes across the country to help many more get through this tough period in which many are trapped at home, unable to see family and friends, urging people:

“We've got lots coming through and it's wonderful, but in Yorkshire and beyond there's loads of care homes and home care out there. We've seen the benefits writing letters has had on our residents... so please spread the love”.