Elderly care home residents are given RADIATION-style ‘hugging mitts’ to touch loved ones 

Elderly people in a care home have been provided with ‘radiation-style’ hugging sleeves so they can touch their loved ones during the UK’s second lockdown.

Visitors at a Sheffield care home have to place their arms through the over-sized black gloves – more commonly seen in nuclear research facilities – to hold hands with their loved ones on the other side of a glass screen.

The affect of the UK’s second lockdown on pensioners’ mental health has become a topic of great concern – after the first ban on visitors earlier this year left many isolated and lonely.

In a bid to tackle concerns, staff at Hallamshire Care Home created a cold weather-friendly ‘visiting nook’.  

Care home manager Scott Melville said their ‘hugging mits’ have enabled residents to touch family members for the first time in months, transforming visits into ‘special events’.

The 44-year-old said the space, which was opened last Friday, has been hailed a ‘fantastic idea’ as the absence of physical contact is something everybody’s ‘really been missing’.

Pictures taken inside the home show residents – many of whom are in their 90s – smiling as they greet their visitors.

Mr Melville – who’s been the manager for 13 years and lives in Sheffield – said: ‘It’s been so well received by all the residents and their families – they can actually touch again and hold hands.

‘It’s going beyond touching a window or through plastic, they’re actually able to sit and safely hold hands with loved ones that they haven’t been able to for six, seven, eight or nine months.

‘Contact is the most important thing, especially with loved ones – it’s what’s been really missing throughout care homes in recent months.

‘As much as our residents have different forms of dementia, they can still recognise or have some emotional reaction to touch, a cuddle or a handhold.

‘When that comes from someone that they may not initially recognise, but the emotion is still inside them, you can see the look on their faces that it means something.’

Hallamshire Care Home initially erected Covid-secure visiting gazebos where residents and visitors were separated by a window panel, but built their ‘nook’ to enable visits to continue throughout the winter months.

Visitors wear disposable gloves inside their mitts, and 30 minutes or more is allowed in between each slot to thoroughly steam sanitise the ‘nook’ ahead of the next visitor.

Mr Melville said: ‘The idea for the gloves came from a relative because in the gazebos she said ‘it was nice, you could feel the warmth of their hands through the plastic’.

‘I was sitting at home that night thinking we’re building this nook, let’s incorporate an actual ability to hold hands.

‘They’ve been able to sit and meet through the gazebo, but actually being able to physically hold hands with your mother, wife or husband is something they’ve not been able to do for so long.

‘That’s the bit that makes a huge difference, which takes it from a visit to an actual special event.’