Author CANHR Staff
By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News, March 18 2022 When the Biden administration announced a set of proposed nursing home reforms last month, consumer advocates were both pleased and puzzled. The reforms call for minimum staffing requirements, stronger regulatory oversight, and better public information about nursing home quality — measures advocates have promoted for years.
This CANHR webinar provides an update about the current policies and problems with visitation in long term care facilities. On February 7, the State Department of Public Health issued new guidance for nursing homes and for assisted living facilities that basically re-set visitation to the pre-Omicron policies but with some important changes.
CANHR has once again reviewed the various federal and California guidance regarding visitation in long term care facilities and synthesized the rules into an updated fact sheet to guide residents and their families. The fact sheet highlights the types of visitation nursing homes and residential care facilities for the elderly must provide and under what conditions as well as the infection control protocols facilities may impose during visits.
On December 31, the Department of Public Health issued an order requiring all nursing home and assisted living facility visitors to provide proof of a negative COVID test before visiting with their loved ones.
By Linda Marsa, CaliforniaHealthline, January 28 2022 (Getty Images) Dina Halperin had been cooped up alone for three weeks in her nursing home room after her two unvaccinated roommates were moved out at the onset of the omicron surge.
On January 7, a new state policy went into effect requiring visitors of long term care facility residents to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test. Due to testing shortages throughout the state, the new policy is equivalent to a lockout of critical resident visitors.
By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News, January 19 2022 A nursing home resident waits for a visitor. (E+ / Getty Images) As covid-19 cases rise again in nursing homes, a few states have begun requiring visitors to present proof that they’re not infected before entering facilities, stoking frustration and dismay among family members.
Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times, January 12 2022 Karen Klink sits next to a sign she used in a protest when it was hard to visit her mother in a memory care facility during a lockdown due to COVID-19 in late 2020.
A state public health order went into effect today that essentially shut down visitation in long term care facilities in California. The order requires all visitors to have a negative COVID test in the past 2 days (PCR tests) or 1 day (antigen tests) in order to visit. Given the substantial challenges to test access, this is tantamount to a visitation lockout.
On November 29th CANHR held a Town Hall for California residents of long term care facilities, their families, and their friends, to discuss the state of resident visitation rights for the holidays. Many of you attended and participated – thank you!
Despite the ongoing pandemic, in-person visitation is mandatory in California long term care facilities. However, a number of facilities are shutting down all in-person visitation indefinitely when a staff member or resident tests positive for COVID-19. Generally, these visitation lockouts are illegal.
Opinion by Teresa Palmer M.D., Westside Observer, August 2021 Who is the last to be considered in an emergency and the first to suffer and die? Folks who must live in long-term care facilities.
Thank you to our guest speakers from the Essential Caregivers Coalition.
Despite plummeting rates of COVID infections and deaths in nursing homes and the lifting of public health-oriented restrictions, long term care facilities throughout the state are still limiting visits from families and friends to a measly 30 minutes per week. Other facilities, in stark contrast, are permitting extensive daily visitation. The wide range of visitation policies among facilities has been enabled by the State’s continued waiver of laws that normally require broad visitation access for residents. Potential residents and their loved ones are strongly encouraged to speak with the managers of facilities they are considering and ask for written copies of their visitation policies.
Opinion by Daniela J. Lamas, New York Times, June 3 2021 Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times BOSTON — I thought it would be different by now. Yet once again I’m standing outside my patient’s isolation room while I update his wife over the phone.
By Lauren J Mapp , The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 09 2021 Jen Potter grasps her mother Rita Bumbera’s hand as they meet at St. Paul’s Senior Services Nursing and Rehabilitation center on Friday, April 30. (Sam Hodgson / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Long-time sweethearts Raymond E.
By Sarah Mervosh, New York Times, March 31 2021 The Biden administration this month published sweeping guidelines allowing nursing homes to hold indoor visits again in most cases.Credit…Kristian Thacker for The New York Times Nursing homes, one of the most restricted settings in America during the pandemic, are allowing visitors again.
Opinion by the Rev. Judy Young, Penn Live Patriot-News, March 23 2021 Retired history professor Charlotte Smith Bode was born in 1920 and like many of our “Greatest Generation,” now lives in a nursing home.
After a year of stringent restrictions imposed because of COVID-19, the California Department of Social Services (DSS) released new guidance on March 19, 2021 significantly relaxing restrictions on visitors to Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (RCFE).
CANHR has reviewed the various federal and California guidance regarding visitation in long term care facilities and synthesized the rules into a new fact sheet to guide residents and their families. The fact sheet highlights the types of visitation nursing homes and residential care facilities for the elderly must provide and under what conditions as well as the infection control protocols facilities may impose during visits.
By Brittany Jacob, KFSN ABC 30, March 16 2021 MARIPOSA COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — A moment of pure joy in Mariposa. This long-awaited embrace comes now that Mae Haste is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. “Well, I haven’t seen my mother in one year and two days, and I get to give her a hug,” says Sue Distaso.
By KTLA 5 Morning News, March 12 2021 The co-founder of the Essential Caregivers Coalition, Maitely Weissman, joined us live to talk about the push for a formal recognition of essential caregivers in public health policy. An essential caregiver is a close family member or close friend chosen by the resident that can provide closeup care to augment the efforts of care staff and uphold the same infection control measures.
State and federal authorities have issued a raft of new guidance on visitation. While many of these new rules significantly relax restrictions on visitors, some questions remain regarding areas of inconsistency between the two sets of rules.
By Amita Sharma, KPBS, March 8 2021 Above: Pictured above is Zakia Azimi, Mariam Barakozoy’s mother in a hospital in 2020. COURTESY MARIAM BARAKZOY Before the pandemic, Mariam Barakzoy routinely helped feed, bathe and give breathing treatments to her bedridden 88-year-old mother Zakia Azimi at a Rancho Bernardo nursing home.
By Barbara Feder Ostrov, CalMatters, March 2 2021 Larry Yabroff and his wife Mary greet each other during a visit at Chaparral House, a skilled nursing facility where Mary is a resident, in Berkeley on Feb.
By David Rosenfeld and Alicia Robinson, The Daily Breeze, March 9 2021 Resident Wendy Green, center, is served by Marisol Barrera at the dining room at Emerald Court in Anaheim, CA on Monday, March 8, 2021.
By Catherine Porter, New York Times, March 9, 2021 Devora Greenspon, 88, a resident at a long-term care facility in Toronto, photographed through the window of her room.Credit…Tara Walton for The New York Times “Right now, they aren’t living.
By: Nina Lozano, KSBY 6 News, March 9 2021 A Central Coast family celebrated their mother’s 80th birthday in person inside a nursing home facility on Monday. Inside San Luis Post Acute Center in San Luis Obispo, Holly Lewis is singing a different tune.
By Sarah Ravani, San Francisco Chronicle, March 7 2021 After two months of being prohibited to visit, Michael (left) and Karen Monley (right) were able to reunite with their son, David Clark (center), at Laguna Hona Hospital.
By Susan Nusser, NY Times, February 26 2021 Lucy Jones The pandemic has stolen away the chance to surround the sister we are losing to dementia with our love, so that she does not have to face death alone.
A study from the American Health Care Association has found that the COVID-19 vaccines are contributing to lower infection rates and COVID spread in nursing homes. This study, based on preliminary data gathered shortly after the introduction of the vaccine in nursing homes in late 2020, provides evidence in favor of reopening nursing homes after its residents and staff have been vaccinated.
By Mia Cathell, The Post Millennial, February 21 2021 After enduring months of loneliness and then an unrelenting COVID-19 outbreak at her California nursing home under lockdown, 99-year-old Gabrielle “Gaby” Lewis passed away loved from afar.
By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, February 20 2021 Melissa Traub hasn’t hugged her 92-year-old mom since March. Like countless others locked out of a family member’s nursing home because of COVID-19, she has spent nearly a year listening helplessly on the phone as her aging mom struggles to comprehend her isolation.
Opinion by Katie Engelhart, New York Times, February 19 2021 For the millions of Americans living with dementia, every day during this pandemic can bring a fresh horror. On a recent morning, Bill Williams, 87, awoke to learn of a terrible virus that had spread everywhere and was killing people.
By Erin Durkin, National Journal, February 10 2021 Groups representing residents and families claim some facilities are still enforcing restrictions on visits that don’t align with federal guidance—like prohibiting indoor visitations even when there haven’t been recent COVID-19 cases.
By Laura Romero, ABC News, February 9 2021 After a year of isolation, there’s a push to open doors at long-term care homes. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Marcella Goheen would visit her husband at a nursing home every day.
By The Editorial Board, NY Times, December 29 2020 When she had the routine of home, Angie Sinopoli was the talkative matriarch of a large Italian family who heaped praise on her children and grandchildren, even as her memory faded.
Written by Amy Ta, produced by Bennett Purser, KCRW, Dec. 09, 2020 “What we have in the nursing home industry is decades of chronic understaffing for a variety of reasons. And during the pandemic, that’s just been exacerbated,” says R.
By Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Times, December 7 2020 In recent survey, more than three-quarters of nursing home residents who responded said they felt lonelier than usual during the pandemic, while nearly two-thirds said they did not leave their rooms to socialize.
By Lauren J. Mapp, The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 14 2020 Norma Cazares poses in her Chula Vista home with a photograph of her aunt and mother on Friday, November 13. Her aunt lives in a skilled nursing home in El Cajon, which will stop indoor visitations due to the county reaching the most restrictive tier. (Kristian Carreon / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) New restrictions come as coronavirus cases spike in skilled nursing facilities across the country With San Diego County dropping into the state’s most restrictive reopening tier for COVID-19 on Saturday, indoor visitations at the county’s skilled nursing facilities are once again off the table.
Here is where to find the list of California Skilled Nursing Facilities approved for indoor visitation. First, visit the California Department of Health Skilled Nursing Facilities: COVID-19 web page. Scroll down to the SNF Data Dashboard.
On August 2, 2020 my Mother was in the nursing home battling dementia when I got word she was put into the COVID side of the home. They said she showed signs of COVID, but not results from a Covid test. She passed on August 5, 2020. On her death report it showed no signs of any COVID, period. You put this wonderful lady which is my Mother in isolation with a nursing curtain two feet from her left. Another two feet to her right is a white solid wall with no windows. In other words, a closed cell for her last three days of her life without seeing her loving son and family. I am her loving son, and I tell you I am still I’m deep pain and sorrow over this lack of professionalism. I was so blessed to have my Mother for as long as I did, but it would have been real nice to say goodbye and be by my Mother’s side during her passing.
My mom the most loving woman I have ever known. She has dementia, is about to turn 99 in August, and lives in a Skilled Nursing Facility for memory care. As a young girl she took care of her mom at home until the day her mom died of cancer.
By Barbara Feder Ostrov, CALmatters, October 26 2020 After months of being unable to have in-person visits amid the pandemic, families across California will now be permitted indoor visits with loved ones in many nursing facilities after new guidance was released by the California Department of Public Health on Friday.
By Allison Griner, Al Jazeera, October 22 2020 [All illustrations by Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera] Elderly people living in care homes are not just dying from coronavirus; they are dying because of the response to it.
By Daniela Molina, Jill Riepenhoff, and Lee Zurik, WBTV 3, October 16 2020 (InvestigateTV) – For seven months, sisters Jill Starke and Carla Helmig repeated to their mother by phone or through a window at her nursing home, “We’ll see you soon.” They knew it was a lie.
An October 2020 report by Altarum presents the findings of a survey of residents on how their lives have been impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions. Residents reported a drastic reduction in social activities and a steep increase in feelings of loneliness.
By Howard Gleckman, Forbes, October 8 2020 MARLBOROUGH, MA – AUGUST 19: Sr. Jeanne Fregeau, 93, waits for her morning medication at St. Chretienne Retirement Residence. Since COVID-19 spread through the facility in April the chapel has been closed, leaving the residents to watch Mass on television.
By Lauren J. Mapp, San Diego Union-Tribune, October 4 2020 Shannon Svensen holds a photograph of her mother, Modena Svensen in front of their home in Chula Vista on Friday. Shannon has been unable to see her mother in person since August.
By Alex Spanko, Skilled Nursing News, September 20, 2020 For Melody Taylor Stark, navigating life after her husband Bill required long-term nursing care hasn’t always been easy, but with the help of some caring staffers and a little bit of creativity, the couple was able to settle into something like normalcy.
On September 17th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a memo to the states, restoring visitation in nursing homes. CMS is requiring facilities to permit visitation whenever a facility has had no new COVID outbreaks for 14 days and the community positivity rate is less than 10%.
Commentary by Thomas D. Elias, Napa Valley Register, September 17 2020 FILE – In this April 8, 2020 file photo, a patient at the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside, Calif., is evacuated to a waiting ambulance.
By Ina Jaffe, NPR, September 17 2020 Larry Yarbroff visits his wife Mary at Chaparral House in Berkeley, Calif. in July. California health authorities had allowed some visits to resume, and now federal regulators are doing the same, with measures to try to block the spread of the coronavirus.
By Sarah Ravani, San Francisco Chronicle, September 4 2020 Theresa Palmer has a Zoom meeting with her 103-year-old mother and other family members. Photo by Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle The San Francisco Public Health Department has issued a new health order letting nursing home residents receive visitors outdoors — a victory for hundreds of people like Teresa Palmer, who hasn’t seen her 103-year-old mother since March and feared she would never see her in person again.
On August 25, the California Department of Public Health (DPH) issued All Facilities Letter 20-22.4 outlining some significant changes to the State’s ever-evolving guidance relating to visiting nursing homes and other health facilities during the COVID pandemic.
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By Lauren McGaughy, Allie Morris and Holly K. Hacker, The Dallas Morning News, August 21 2020 For months, no visitors have been allowed inside long-term care facilities. Under new rules, all visits at nursing homes must occur outdoors.
By Rachel Chason, The Washington Post, August 21, 2020 Dena Ducane and her mother, Rhoda Dobrovich, spend time on Dena’s front porch last month in Santa Fe. (Mary Mathis for The Washington Post) Dena Ducane had to make a decision, but every option felt wrong.
By Paula Span, NY Times, August 14 2020 Cathy Baum, right, and her husband, Mark, visited her mother, Paulette Becker, at Tall Oaks Assisted Living in Reston, Va., earlier this month. Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times Struck hard by the pandemic, long-term and assisted living facilities shut their doors to outsiders.
By Greg Allen, NPR, August 4 2020 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference Monday along with Dr. Joshua Lenchus, chief medical officer of Broward Health Medical Center. DeSantis says he’s exploring ways to open nursing homes for family member visits.
By Jared Whitlock, Voice of San Diego, July 28 2020 Natasha Josefowitz looks beyond her balcony at the White Sands Retirement Community in La Jolla. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz When Jan Thompson drops off care packages to her 95-year-old mom, about 8 feet separate them.
By Barbara Feder Ostrov and Jocelyn Wiener, Cal Matters, July 23 2020 Caroline Harrison, left, Jackson Harrison Shirk, 11, right, and his mother, Virginia Harrison, far right, visit with Jackson’s grandmother, Debbie, center, at The Chaparral House, the Berkeley skilled nursing facility where Debbie has lived for the past three years.
Outdoor visitation is now required in California nursing homes but many facilities have not gotten the memo. Here is a sample letter to use to distribute the memo and get outdoor visits for nursing home residents.
By Yael Halon, Fox News, July 22 2020 As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Americans are embracing a new “normal” and trying to adapt to everyday life in a time of fear and uncertainty. But for children with an autism spectrum disorder — which affects about one in 54 children in the U.S., according to federal estimates — adjusting to change presents a far greater challenge, as has been the case for 26-year-old Billy Caulley.
By Maggie Flynn, Skilled Nursing News, July 21 2020 When it became apparent that COVID-19 was sweeping the country, one of the earliest major preventative steps was a move by the federal government to instate a near-total lockdown on any unnecessary visits.
By Betsy Morris, The Wall Street Journal, July 20 2020 Living alone without social interaction is implicated in higher rates of cardiovascular disease, worsening dementia and Alzheimer’s and shorter lives Society hasn’t figured out how to protect the elderly from coronavirus without imposing another very real health threat: isolation. For more than 100 days in some places, residents in nursing homes and retirement communities across the country have been separated from spouses, children, grandchildren and friends of many decades.
By Jennifer Abbasi, JAMA, July 16 2020 Residents in nursing homes that remain locked down during the novel coronavirus pandemic face another silent threat: social isolation. In early July, long-term care insiders said many older adults in homes with ongoing strict social isolation had increased depression, anxiety, worsening dementia, and failure to thrive.
By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News, July 13 2020 (Rosa Garcia/Getty Images) States across the country are beginning to roll back heart-wrenching policies instituted when the coronavirus pandemic began and allow in-person visits at nursing homes and assisted living centers, offering relief to frustrated families.
Opinion by Jason Karlawish, David C. Grabowski and Allison K. Hoffman, The Washington Post, July 13 2020 Agustina Cañamero, 81, and Pascual Pérez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic sheet at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, on June 22.
By Sydney Page, The Washington Post, July 13, 2020 Mary Daniel is the chief executive of a small company that helps patients with health-care bills. She just took a part-time job on the cleaning crew at an assisted-living facility — but not because she needed the money.
By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News, July 13 2020 (From left) Ina Barbosa, of Attleboro, Mass., and Kimberley Vann-Lites, of Norton, Mass., visit with their mother, Mary Vann, age 85, in person for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut down visits to Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston’s Roslindale, on June 11, 2020.
By The Associated Press, July 12 2020 Chaparral House executive director KJ Page, left, hands a mask to Larry Yabroff as he sits with his wife, Mary, while visiting her at the Berkeley skilled nursing facility Friday.
By Amy Taxin, Associated Press, July 12 2020 For months, families have pined to see their loved ones who live in California’s skilled nursing facilities, which have been shut down to outside visitors to keep the coronavirus from spreading.
By Scott Neuman, NPR, July 10 2020 Gloria DeSoto, 92, right, visits with her family, in their car, from a window of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, in New York, last month. Seth Wenig/AP After months of prohibiting in-person visits to relatives in nursing homes amid COVID-19 fears, New York says it will begin easing those restrictions for facilities that are certified as virus-free.
We can protect and care for our family members simply by being with them. We are willing to go through the similar safety protocols because we want to protect our loved ones. The residents have been locked inside their room and deprived of the precious time, the care and the love from the family members too long.
I have been witness to the devastating effects of the Corona Virus on our older population despite the fact we have had only 3 positive cases of Covid-19 in our county. I understand the devastating effects this virus has on our elderly. People need to know the devastating effects this isolation is having on those same people. What I had witnessed was heartbreaking. I saw such sadness among the residents. I saw deterioration of physical health as well as mental health. Residents are exhibiting behaviors that were never present before. Residents have lost weight and appear lethargic.
It has been 113 days since I have seen my 28 year old son. He is in a Supported Living Center in Denton TX. He has been there for 3 years. During that time, I would spend time with him several times a week, each and EVERY week.
On June 26, the California Department of Public Health released a new policy regarding visitation that, for the first time since March, REQUIRES nursing homes to permit visitors for outdoor and indoor visits. Facilities with no current COVID-19 outbreak must permit outdoor visitation.
On June 26, the California Department of Social Services released updated guidance regarding visitation in PIN 20-23-ASC that, for the first time since March, REQUIRES assisted living facilities to permit visitors under specified narrow circumstances, and permits indoor and outdoor visitation when certain criteria are met.
A recent podcast from the Long Term Care Community Coalition takes on the tragedy of the visitation ban in long term care facilities. CANHR Staff Attorney Tony Chicotel and CANHR’s #VisitationSavesLives campaign is featured in the podcast. The episode is called “The Eyes, Ears, and Voice: Why Nursing Home Visitation Saves Lives.”
By Jill Castelano, inewsource, July 6 2020 Rosa Montiel sits outside of her sister Lilly’s window at San Diego Post-Acute, an El Cajon nursing home, June 10, 2020. (Zoë Meyers/inewsource) Esther Hernandez was supposed to come home.
Courtesty of the Center for Medicare Advocacy The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently revised its guidance on visitations to nursing facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic via seven Frequently Asked Questions.[1] CMS is authorizing additional, more flexible guidance on visitation, while reiterating the need for screening, social distancing, hand hygiene, and face coverings during all visits.
By Amita Sharma, KPBS, July 1 2020 Above: A sign posted outside of Belmont Village Senior Living in Sabre Springs explains the facility’s new visitation rules in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Amita Sharma Advocates are asking the state to end what they call the trauma of “solitary confinement” of residents at senior care facilities by allowing them at least one designated visitor.
By Meagan Thompson, The Montana Standard, July 1 2020 Noralee Driscoll, a resident of The Springs at Butte, and her son Brian Driscoll, the plant operations director, demonstrate the use of the looking glass — a Plexiglas partition used for family meetings with residents of the Butte nursing home.
By Allison Shepherd, The LaRue County Herald News, July 1 2020 The Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander announced Thursday that starting Monday, June 29, the state will resume visitation at assisted living and personal care homes, group activities (10 or fewer) in facilities, communal dining and off-site appointments.
By Hannah Shirley, Grand Forks Herald, Jul 1 2020 Photo by Matthias Zomer from Pexels Residents of North Dakota’s long-term care facilities who have experienced dramatic physical or mental decline due to isolation during the pandemic will be allowed in-person visits with family and loved ones.
By Rolly Hoyt, KTHV CBS 11, June 30 2020 ARKANSAS, USA — From the very start of the pandemic, our elderly loved ones have been the most at-risk and nursing homes needed to be protected at all costs. With hundreds of long-term care facilities cleared to open to limited visitation Wednesday, a cautious risk-benefit analysis is going on because of one hidden cost.
By Jan Greene, Crain’s Detroit Business, June 30 2020 Michigan has expanded the reasons for visitation at long-term care facilities to include family members or friends who assist residents with activities of daily life such as eating, bathing or dressing.
By Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press, June 30 2020 After more than three months of waiting, families and friends of some residents in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities will be able to visit their loved ones in person.
By Bilal Suleiman, The Bismarck Tribune, June 30 2020 North Dakota expanded visitation at long-term care facilities to allow for more family indoor visits with nursing home residents in declining mental or physical health stemming from coronavirus pandemic restrictions put in place three months ago.
By Steven Albritton, WLWT5, June 30 2020 Ohio finally has its return date to allow visitors to nursing homes. On July 20, visitors of those with family will be allowed to schedule outdoor visits but will have to follow guidelines established by the state.
By Kathleen Ronayne, Associated Press, June 29 2020 A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officer wears a protective mask as he stands guard at the front gate of San Quentin State Prison on June 29, 2020 in San Quentin, California.
California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) press conference at 11:00 A.M. (PST) on Monday, June 29, 2020 via Zoom to announce a June 30th Day of Action for restoring visitation rights for long term care facility residents who have not seen their family members the past three months.
My sister is in a nursing home San Diego. She is a Downs Syndrome person. Before the ban on visitations, my sister would enjoy feeding her baby dolls, coloring, and moving to her favorite music with my help.
My mother, always a very active and social person, now lives in a skilled nursing facility in San Francisco. She is ninety-four years old, and has serious physical, and cognitive disabilities. Among other things, my mother has much difficulty with her hearing and vision.
Our sister is in a subacute unit nursing home, and she is developmentally disabled. We have been unable to see her since visitation was banned. Now, our mother has fallen into a deep sadness of not being able to see her daughter. Prior to the pandemic, we would visit regularly to bring her clean clothes, her favorite snacks, and gifts.
For nearly 120 days my mother, age 93, like all other residents, has been in solitary confinement at her assisted living facility. I use that term to describe the following conditions: 1) Residents are not allowed out of their rooms except to take walks close by to the facility.
I have not been able to visit my wife in her nursing home since visitation was banned on March 13th. Before the ban, I used to spend 20 hours a week visiting my wife, making sure her needs were met.
My father is in a nursing home and miserable. He was placed there by his wife without his knowledge or consent. He is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. He is aware of his surroundings and has full recognition of his friends and family. COVID-19 has added to his despair since he cannot leave the premises or receive visitors. In as much as his physical health is being preserved his mental and emotional state are severely compromised. I am his oldest daughter and I was going to visit him nearly every weekend. I would take him to lunch or go to art galleries in town. All of these activities have ceased, and my biggest fear is that he will pass without seeing his family and being physically close to us one last time.
My mother was a resident of a sub-acute nursing facility in San Diego since December 2015. She has a ventilator and requires the care of a sub-acute facility. I used to visit daily for 3 – 4 hours, taking her out in the sunshine and keeping watch over her medical condition and any changes, and making the nursing department and doctors aware of these changes.
My mother is 91 years old and has been in a nursing home for the past 3-1/2 years. The home has been very good to my mom and we are appreciative for their care.