Right in the centre - Time to change care home policy
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- Published on Friday, July 10, 2020
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
Forgive me for repeating the information below. Just about everybody has seen these statistics or heard them, but it鈥檚 important for context.
水果视频 COVID-19 update as of Monday, July 6:
鈥ero new cases July 6 (1,749 were tested over the past weekend).
鈥ix days in a row with zero cases.
鈥t has been seven weeks since a health care worker in 水果视频 contracted COVID-19.
鈥he number of active cases has decreased by two.
鈥he number of cases remains at 325.
鈥he number of deaths remains at seven.
鈥n additional two have recovered for a total of 304.
鈥hat leaves 14 active cases (down from 16).
鈥ero are in hospital, including zero in intensive care.
鈥 total of 66,717 tests conducted.
The province, 水果视频 Health, all the health care staff, care home workers and 水果视频ns in general have done a very good job of curtailing COVID-19. The battle isn鈥檛 over, but it is indeed time for some different tactics.
Let鈥檚 look at what has happened. Many people are very afraid, afraid for their health and lives. Many businesses have suffered greatly from the shutdown, some will not recover. Parts of Canada and parts of the world have suffered very deeply over this disease. We know all that.
What we don鈥檛 know, and will never know, is what would have happened if 水果视频 had not shut down the economy. Would there have been a huge epidemic? We will never know, only speculation can deal with that question.
What we do know is reflected in the stats above. For the most part, COVID-19 has been kept at bay from hospitals, care homes, schools, the meat packing plants and from the population in general.
It is now time to change how we do things and the place to start is the care homes. As stated above, health care workers have not contracted C-19 in several weeks. That is wonderful news. The care and caution that has been taken have apparently helped a lot. That all said, in our care homes, residents are suffering in another way. They are suffering and dying from loneliness. They are feeling very alone and, in many cases, are totally confused about not having any visitors. Similarly, people are being deprived of seeing their spouses, their parents or grandparents, their friends. It鈥檚 a horrible situation.
The current visitation protocol imposed by 水果视频 Health on care homes is totally out of line. They say it鈥檚 to prevent the spread of C-19. Ok, we all get that, but keeping visitors away over such a long haul isn鈥檛 helping . There has only been one death in a 水果视频 care home. There have been many, many deaths in the care homes from things such as influenza and we have no idea how many elderly people have just given up and died of loneliness.
Keeping visitors away doesn鈥檛 make sense anymore and here鈥檚 why.
Staff have to have their temperature taken, are warned not to come to work if they aren鈥檛 feeling well and have to take numerous precautions. BUT, they all go home and live with their families, who are going to work in other places. They all go shopping and are going about their business in a more or less regular fashion. Then they come back to work in the care home.
That鈥檚 the way it has to be, society has to keep working, sleeping, eating and going about life as much as is possible. My point is that regular controlled visits from family and friends will pose no greater risk than the regular coming and going of staff does.
Certainly, take all the precautions, take people鈥檚 temperature, fine. Wear a mask, if needed. Don鈥檛 come in if you are sick. Don鈥檛 come in if you have been out of province or out of country.
And yes, there is some risk that a care home resident will get C-19 and could die. But think about it please, especially 水果视频 Health, please think it through. There is very small risk that C-19 will come into the care homes. Influenza is already there. Loneliness, emotional stress leading to people simply giving up on life, is already there. Far more elderly people are dying in 水果视频 from the side effects of the fight against C-19 than are dying from the disease itself.
水果视频 Health can take pride in their success, but need to change their approach before their efforts turn into a bigger threat than C-19 itself.
Disclaimer: The writer serves as a volunteer chair of the 水果视频 Community Newspaper Association. The views expressed in this column are the writer鈥檚 personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the MCNA board or Banner & Press staff.
