Carlos Osorio / Reuters
Bonnie Wilson’s mother, Elsie Jackson, 92, moved to a nursing home in the Toronto area about 8 years ago. Jackson suffers from dementia and chronic pain. But she was elegant, cheerful and combed the last time Wilson saw her in person, during a stopover in space on March 3, called Value Village.
She “was ahead of being involved in life,” Wilson said.
Then the coronavirus epidemic hit Canada.
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The reception houses have been affected and, for citizens, provincial governments have taken enclose measures and excluded families. But some experts say this kind of containment can do more harm than smart because some citizens’ situation is worsening due to isolation.
Bonnie Wilson says she saw helplessly how her mother’s physical and intellectual fitness deteriorated. Most nursing homes were understaffed, and the one where Wilson’s mom lives was added. Confined to her room, her chronic pain disorders worsened. The only way to see yourself through weekly video chats.
“Now we’re at a point where you’re even going to take a shower. He’s going to leave his room. He’s going to wash his hair. I think it’s a combination of his pain, his nausea and his discouragement. doesn’t need to live. »
“To be isolated, to have nothing to look forward to, without an end date in sight, some things to have a hard time,” Bonnie Wilson said from her home in Orono, Ontario. “Now we’re at a point where you don’t even take a shower. It’s not time to leave his room. It doesn’t happen to wash your hair. It’s a combination, I think, of his pain, his nausea and his discouragement. You don’t need to live.”
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Host houses across Canada have recently begun opening their doors to family visits. Experts are beginning to put pressure on governments to accelerate these reopenings.
Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, supported the initial closure. He saw a few weeks of lockdown as “an evil,” believing that “it’s not going to be wonderful [that] we have to weigh the dangers and benefits.”
But he says the normal circle of family visits is what helps keep citizens of mentally and physically healthy nursing homes. And he is involved in the accumulation of evidence that separating families for more than a few weeks harms citizens.
“We are seeing disorders with malnutrition. We are seeing more and more loneliness and depression disorders that accompany this point of social isolation. And we’re seeing an increase in behavioral disorders and, as a result, other people are just getting worse.”
“We are seeing malnourished disorders. We see more and more disorders of loneliness and depression that accompany this point of social isolation. And we’re seeing sprawling behavioral disorders and other people are deteriorating as a result,” he said.
It issues a report from a nursing home in France, where infectious disease experts have discovered that more people have died from malnutrition than coronavirus. He says the falsified statistics are hard to find, but suspects they will eventually show that forgetting that detention has caused many deaths in retirement homes.
“Possibly we would have the same number of other people who have died of loneliness, social isolation, dehydration and malnutrition as COVID-19 itself,” he said.
Sinha is pressuring Canada’s provincial governments to allow nursing homes to open their doors to an unlimited circle of family visits, but many still hesitate to take this step.
John Yip, who runs the Kensington Gardens nursing home in downtown Toronto, says he faces a dilemma. “It’s a very confusing situation. A difficult and difficult decision. There are no simple answers here,” he said.
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Like other nursing homes in Ontario, Kensington Gardens allowed the first circle of family visits inland last week. Visits are limited to once a week for up to 30 minutes, and everyone should wear a mask and stay away.
Wilson, whose mom is in a different home, says she still won’t be able to give her mom the care she needs.
“Under those rules, I can’t help you,” he says. “We can’t touch someone else. I can’t help you. I can’t do anything yet, say hello. This is not enough when we have other people who want attention.”
Yip said he understood the considerations of families. He also saw that citizens were getting worse mentally and physically by imprisonment, but still need not threatened with some other coronavirus outbreak, he said. In Kensington Gardens, 8 citizens died of COVID-19 in a week without getting married, and their staff were forced to deal with the emergency.
“Our staff, who don’t pack the corpses, pack them for years. Arrangement… It sticks to my skin. There’s a trauma there.”
He and his people are still obsessed with this experience: “OurArray, which does not pack corpses, packs them for years. Not in black frame bags, but in clear plastic bags, and with sharpie, I would write in the bag the name, time and roll this frame bag through the unit,” he said. “It sticks to my skin. There’s a trauma there.”
Under existing government rules, any house with even a new CASE of COVID-19 will have to confine citizens and prevent all visits until space is coronavirus-free. Yip says no one needs this again.
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