'Hugging machine' at Cork nursing home allows families to embrace after months of being apart
Cramer's Court Nursing Home in Belgooly yesterday took to social media to showcase the clever invention, which uses a plastic divider and gloves to enable residents to embrace their loved ones.
"We can't thank CSP enough for building our hugging machine, it will make a huge difference to our residents' mental health during present restrictions," the nursing home wrote.
After the first day of utilising the innovative hugging machine, Cramer's Court reported a "very emotional day" filled with "tears, smiles and hugs".
One poignant exchange was between a father and daughter duo who had not hugged since the first week of March.
The addition to Cramer's Court comes as a leading expert has called for a greater focus to be put on asking older people who live in care homes what they would like to see during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor Corina Naughton, a professor of Clinical Nursing in Older Person’s Healthcare at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork and the South/SouthWest Hospital Group said that while older people were afraid amid the outbreak, that "they are even more frightened of not seeing their families".
"If you have two years left of your life to live, then this is a quarter of your life.
"Older people need to have a voice on what they want, to have autonomy and to be asked what risks they want to take," she told .
App?
