“Brutal”, “torture”, “not humane” – these are some of the words Cathie Russell uses to describe restrictions on visiting to care homes during the pandemic.

Despite the challenges, Cathie, who set up the Care Home Relatives Scotland group in the early days of the pandemic, is keen to stress her quarrel is not with care home staff, who she says have shown only kindness to her mum, Rose.

But she says thousands of people in the same situation as her, and their relatives in care homes, were abandoned by different agencies “who have kept their heads down”.

Cathie does not like the ‘visitors’ label. “I wasn’t my mum’s visitor, I am her daughter,” she says. “How can you class someone like that as a visitor? We are much more integral to someone’s life than that.”

Cathie says the initial decision to lock down care homes to all but essential visitors was understandable, given the threat posed by the virus.

But she suggests there was a failure, particularly last year when community cases began to decline, to consider “other harms”.

“People’s human rights in this have been absolutely trashed. In twelve months, I got to see my mother for 30 minutes.

“[Before that] I was her number one carer, she had only been in care a couple of months when all this kicked off.”

While window visits – where Cathie would phone her mum from the other side of the glass – provided a small substitute, this does not work for many older people with dementia or Alzheimer’s who were “totally bewildered” and as a result she does not “count anything behind a screen as a visit.”

Relatives have spoken of seeing family members who had deteriorated after months of isolation to the point where they no longer recognised their sons or daughters.

And while the official government position was that essential visits – for example in end of life situations – should have continued throughout, Cathie tells of how group members have found this a “real issue” in practice.

Again, she does not blame staff in the care homes but points the finger at the Scottish government:

“I don’t think there’s anyone in our group who wouldn’t agree that care homes were lobbed right in it last March and a lot of the suffering and the struggles that we are having just now is about the basic fear and resentment in the care homes about how they were treated, and now we’re paying the price for it.”

Care Home Relatives Scotland, which now has around 1,900 members, grew rapidly after being started in the early days of the pandemic and went on to push the Scottish government to relax restrictions on visiting with protests outside Parliament and meetings with the Health Secretary.

Guidance published this week set out how residents can safely go on outings with family and friends outside the care home, without a need to isolate afterwards.

But Cathie believes the Scottish government needs to be more active in pushing forward visiting rights, particularly for residents who aren’t fit enough to go outside the home.

The SNP has promised to bring in Anne’s Law, which would give each resident the right to regular contact with a designated friend or relative.

Seeing the commitment in the manifesto was a big win for the group – but Cathie says she will keep the pressure on.

“The balance needs to shift towards the default position of people being able to see their relatives…we are not unnecessary footfall, and that is how public health always regarded us.”

Read more: Scots care home visiting lags behind England; Virus care home ‘fundamentalism’ criticised; Insight: Year ahead ‘critical’ for social care

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