After months apart, residents of a Douglas nursing home have been able to see their families, thanks to an innovative solution.

Salisbury Street Nursing Home opened its gates to allow families to visit residents in their cars.

The idea for the visits came from manager Eliana Firmino, who worked with the Department of Health and Social Care’s care home assessment team (CHAT) to make it a reality.

She told the Isle of Man Courier that this was the third week the home has been running the visits and most residents have been able to see their families.

’I’d seen nursing homes were doing it in the UK and some other places around the world and I took the idea and started thinking of how to make it work to do it here’, Eliana said.

’It depends on the weather and how long lockdown is in place, but we will try to continue to do these kind of activities .’

Sadly, due to their health, some residents have not been able to see their families but Eliana said they are working on a way to make this possible.

The visits are organised in 15-minute slots, allowing residents a chance to sit out in the car park and talk to their families.

Residents who have been able to see their families have been thanking the staff at Salisbury Street. Eliana said some residents had ’not been able to sleep’ they had been so excited.

As well as caring for residents, the management of the home have been keeping morale amongst the staff up by arranging special treats for them such as ordering in food.