Category Visitation News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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.

By WKYC Staff, June 29 2020 COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Ohio continues to reopen its economy amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, one of the last things to remain prohibited has been nursing home visitation.  That will soon be changing.  On Monday, Gov.

By Gaby Krevat, KBZK7, June 29 2020 SHERIDAN — While Governor Bullock has eased up some restrictions on nursing homes and assisted living facilities, places like the Tobacco Root Mountains Care Center in Sheridan, continue to remain extremely vigilant.

By Praveena Somasundaram and Carli Brosseau, The Charlotte Observer, June 29 2020 New guidance from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services allows outdoor visitation at some residential care facilities. The updated guidance took effect at 5 p.m.

By WSYX ABC6, June 29 2020 An announcement from the governor Monday that many have been waiting for. Outdoor visitation for nursing homes and start July 20. “I’m going to give her the biggest hug ever.

By Jon Kamp and Paul Overberg, The Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2020 As Covid-19 raced through long-term care facilities, it amplified mortality risks for those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia An Illinois nursing home where several residents died of Covid-19.

By Matt Holzapfel, KRTV3, June 27 2020 GREAT FALLS — Earlier this week, Governor Steve Bullock announced that safe visitation in nursing homes and assisted living facilities would be allowed to resume, given those facilities could follow proper CDC and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines and protocols.

By Will Englund, The Washington Post, June 27 2020 Gloria DeSoto, 92, visits with her family on June 11 from a window of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York. The home has scheduled noncontact visits seven days a week to help families and residents reconnect.

By WKYT News Staff, June 25 2020 FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) – Kentucky will resume visitations at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the coming weeks. Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander made the announcement Thursday.

By James M. Berklan, McKnight’s Long Term Care News, June 25 2020 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services excited the provider community and brought clarity to numerous aspects of restarting visits at nursing homes Wednesday.

By Robert Garrison, ABC7 Denver, June 25 2020 Photo by: Google DENVER — The COVID-19 outbreak has struck nursing homes in Colorado especially hard. More than 40% of all deaths related to the virus in the state have come from non-hospital residential facilities, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

By Alex Spanko, Skilled Nursing News, June 24 2020  Pixabay | CC0 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday released an updated set of frequently asked questions designed to encourage safe visitation of residents in nursing homes.

By Anne McCloy, CBS6 WRGB Albany, June 23 2020 ALBANY NY (WRGB) – As each day passes, families continue to wait on the state government to determine when nursing home visitation can resume across New York State.

By Kati Weis, CBS4 Denver, June 23 2020 DENVER (CBS4) – Since March, nursing home residents have been isolated from their loved ones, and other fellow residents in their facilities. But Tuesday, state health officials announced those residents can begin seeing visitors face-to-face, with restrictions.

By Susan Christian Goulding, Orange County Register, June 22 2020 Tom Rezvan, left, of Huntington Beach, pushes his father, Perry Rezvan, 77, in a wheelchair as they leave Sea Cliff Healthcare Center in Huntington Beach, on Friday, May 1, 2020.

By Nathan Gray, Los Angeles Times, June 22 2020 (Nathan Gray / For The Times) Gray is an assistant professor of medicine and palliative care at Duke University School of Medicine and an artist who draws comics on medical topics.

By Eleanor Laise, Barron’s, June 21, 2020 Jackson Mitzner, right, and his sisters. Courtesy Crystal Ton Crystal Ton won’t take no for an answer. For three months, the Virginia Beach, Va., mother of four has been fighting to see her 13-year-old son, Jackson Mitzner.

By Elizabeth Janney, Patch Staff, June 20 2020 Some Maryland nursing home residents will be allowed to eat meals together and have visitors outside, the Maryland Health Department said. (Elizabeth Janney/Patch) MARYLAND — This weekend residents at Maryland nursing homes may have visitors for the first time in more than three months.

By Flora Charner, Rodrigo Pedroso and Sara Spary, CNN, June 19, 2020 A son hugs his father at Três Figueiras via the “hug tunnel,” which staff developed to enable loved ones to embrace. (CNN)A care home for elderly people in southern Brazil has come up with a creative way to bring some love to its residents amid the coronavirus pandemic, by creating a “hug tunnel” that allows relatives to safely embrace them.

By Christina Favuzzi, KSBY 6 News, June 17 2020

KMSP Fox 9, June 11 2020 Chester Peske, a WWII veteran, died on June 2nd, four months short of reaching 100th birthday. (FOX 9) FOX 9 – The state of Minnesota is making plans to ease visitor restrictions in long-term care facilities after senior citizens spent the last three months in isolation, one of them dying in part to loneliness.

By Michael Sol Warren and Rodrigo Torrejon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, June 10 2020 Elderly patients arrive at CareOne at Hanover in Whippany during coronavirus pandemic.George McNish | For NJ Advance Media It was a nightmare scenario, a last-ditch effort to save dozens of lives in immediate danger.

By Ina Jaffe, NPR, June 9 2020 Luann Thibodeau recently celebrated her 40th anniversary with her husband, Jeff. They ate dinner from Olive Garden while she remained on the other side of his nursing room window.

By Mara Hoplamazian, The Sacramento Bee, June 8 2020 Denise Plank visits her father, Ed, 84, through his nursing home window at Fresno’s California Armenian Home nearly everyday. It’s her only way of connecting with her father due to the coronavirus lockdown at the facility. BY CRAIG KOHLRUSS Deaths in California nursing homes from COVID-19 more than doubled during the month of May, as skilled-care facilities for the elderly continue to disproportionately bear the brunt of the pandemic across the United States.

By Colin A. Young, State House News Service, June 2 2020 Charwell Nursing Home Massachusetts SOURCE: WCVB BOSTON — Starting Wednesday, Massachusetts state officials will allow residents of nursing homes, rest homes and assisted living facilities to receive guests during pre-scheduled outdoor visits.

By Ryan Sabalow and Jason Pohl, The Sacramento Bee, May 26 2020 In this April 21, 2020, photo, Marguerite Mouille, 94, gestures while her visiting daughter takes a photo at the Kaisesberg nursing home, eastern France.