Isolated and withdrawn: anonymous Covid case study

During lockdown one of the people we support lived in his home alone as his housemate had to isolate at home with his parents due to health issues.

He was very isolated and unable to do any of his normal socialising, this meant that he would use his phone to talk to friends on WhatsApp and messenger.

He sent some inappropriate messages to people which then caused concern for his own welfare and then also the welfare of others.

He became very withdrawn and spent lots of time in his room.

Whilst at home alone he would leave the radio on all the time which then caused an upset with the neighbours.

He refused to answer the house phone which was ringing at all times night and day. Again this upset the neighbours. The constant calls were from a friend of his who would call his house phone when he was too busy to answer his mobile.

He could not see his family for several months. He speaks to them on the phone regularly but he becomes very quiet when talking about his family and he misses going out for walks with the family dog.

He has required lots of prompting to get things done around the house such as cleaning. He seems to lack motivation.  He looks forward to visits from staff and will happily sit and chat about his day.

When leaving the house he will stand at the door watching you go, he always looks very sad.

Throughout most of lockdown he has been able to attend New Forest day opportunities. This has been good for him and helped to ease the loneliness that he has clearly felt at times.

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