BBC Naidheachdan & BBC Scotland
BBCRural care homes are finding it so hard to recruit enough workers that some have been forced to shut temporarily to survive.
One home run by the NHS in Mallaig was shut for 18 months, while another in Gairloch is expected to reopen this spring after it shut last summer.
The situation affects dozens of staff, vulnerable residents and their families.
Shanna Eddie said the closure of the Mackintosh Centre in Mallaig where she is deputy manager was “like everything had been ripped out from underneath you”.
The Mallaig facility has been at the sharp end of recruitment problems in the Highlands.
It was forced to close temporarily between July 2023 and November last year.
Residents were relocated to another home about an hour’s drive away.
Ms Eddie told BBC Alba’s new Eòrpa documentary Who Cares?: “We had six permanent residents at the time, and it was worrying about where they were going to go, how the families were going to cope, how their daily lives were going to be affected.
“We had some residents whose family didn’t drive.
“And for them to be relocated 40 miles up the road to Fort William cut down greatly on their daily visits that they used to get from various family members over the course of a week.”
She said it was a relief when the centre was able to reopen and welcome back residents when staffing levels returned to normal.
NHS Highland said in November the reopening would not have been possible without the hard work of the local community and its staff.
The challenges faced by the care sector in Scotland can be linked to the country’s ageing population.
There are more than one million people aged 65 and over in Scotland, according to the National Records of Scotland.
Meanwhile Scotland’s latest census figures show that there has been a 5.2% increase in people over 65 in the Highlands over the past 10 years.
Across Scotland the increase was 3.3%.
The figures also suggest the Western Isles has the highest percentage of those aged 65 and over at 27%.
Care providers also point to depopulation, a lack of affordable homes for potential staff and competition with the tourism and retail industries.
‘Economic conditions’
Gairloch’s Strathburn House was forced to close in July.
Its owner, NHS Highland, described it as an emergency short-term suspension due to recruitment challenges and concerns for the safety of the home’s seven residents.
The site is expected to reopen in spring.
Moss Park, a 40-resident home in Fort William, had been facing permanent closure.
Owner HC One said it had long struggled to build and retain the full, permanent care teams needed to consistently deliver high standards of care.
A local campaign has led to Highland Council and NHS Highland agreeing to take it over next month.
Pamela Stott, NHS Highland chief officer adult social care, said there were different factors behind recruitment problems.
She said: “There’s economic conditions, there’s depopulation.
“There’s competition with the retail and tourism sectors.
“So we’re continually facing workforce challenges, but at the same time, we’re also looking at innovative ways that we can recruit workforce into care careers, health care careers.”
Innovations include building homes for staff as a way of overcoming difficulties employees can have finding affordable housing.
Parklands is building a new care home in Inverness. It is due to open in May and will need 120 staff.
As well as the accommodation for residents, it is is constructing 24 apartments for rent for its workers.
Other care homes have taken a different approach.
They are forging links with local schools in the hope of encouraging future new recruits to the sector.
In the Western Isles, pupils are offered a foundation apprenticeship course in social care.
They visit Seaforth House in Stornoway every week to receive on-the-job learning.
Fairburn, near Muir of Ord, in the Highlands, has links with Dingwall Academy, the local high school.
Susan Davison, whose family has run the independent care home for more than 40 years, said: “We are quite rural, so that causes its own difficulties.
“We’re not on a bus route, and over the last while it’s been much more difficult because there’s just not people coming for interviews or anything like that.”
Lexie is one of four pupils who does work experience at the site.
She said: “I do a couple of hours after school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday, Friday I come out of school and come here instead.
“It’s a good place, special place to work, it’s nice, like a big family.”
The Scottish government said it was keenly aware of the challenges.
Social Care Minister Maree Todd, who is also MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, said: “I often think if I can get social work care to work where I live, I can get it to work anywhere because it is pretty much the toughest part in the country.”
