BARRHEAD - The family and friends of those who reside in any of Alberta’s longterm care facilities, including those who live in Barrhead Continuing Care, will now have improved access to their loved ones.
Alberta's chief medical officer Deena Hinshaw announced that the province's long-term care homes could ease their visitor restrictions starting on July 23.
For several months, long-term care homes have severely restricted visitor access.
Under the new policy, residents can designate two support people who will be able to visit indoors for as long and as often as they want.
Previously, care homes in the province only allowed residents to designate one family member or support person to spend time with them indoors and only when their needs couldn’t be met by a staff member or during an end of life situation, characterized as when a resident is in the expected last few weeks of life.
That being said, the province is allowing each facility to create its own visitor policy — based on consultation with residents, family and staff — as well as the amount of risk each operator is willing to assume.
"From the feedback from family, residents and staff, we recognized the importance of having an increased family presence, but that we needed to be careful because COVID is still out there and the number of infections is increasing," said Alberta Health Services (AHS) director of clinical operations Heather Thompson.
Thompson's responsibilities include the overseeing of long-term, acute and homecare as well as rehabilitation for the Barrhead, Westlock, Swan Hills and Onoway region.
COVID-19 has hit the seniors community, especially those living in long-term care. Of the 187 deaths recorded in Alberta due to COVID-19 as of July 19, 73 per cent lived in seniors accommodations.
Although seniors, in general, are more susceptible to the coronavirus and have more negative outcomes, residents in Barrhead Continuing Care are especially at risk.
Barrhead Continuing Care is designated as a Designated Supportive Living (SL) 5 facility as having serious, chronic and/or unpredictable medical conditions that require access to registered nurses able to respond immediately on a 24-hour basis.
Having said that Thompson noted that the new senior facility visitation guidelines set out by the province are for all long-term senior housing facilities, regardless of designation.
For Barrhead Continuing Care, after considering the previously mentioned feedback, it means that each time the two designated visitors visit a loved one they will first have to undergo a screening process consisting of a temperature check and answering a series of health questions.
If the visitor passes the check, they will then be allowed to visit with their loved one, if they have a private room. If they don't, the visit may still take place in the room, with the permission of the other resident, but more than likely it will take place at one of several predesignated locations inside the facility. It should be noted that if a visit takes place in a location where physical distancing can be maintained — visitors are asked to have a mask handy, just in case.
To help ensure that all the safeguards are in place, visitors are asked to pre-book their visits.
In addition to the indoor visits, the province also increased the number of outdoor visitors to four up from the previous one designated visitor.
The other big change, Thompson said, is that the change to the provincial long-term care home visitation policy is that it makes allowances for physical contact.
"Now you have to keep your mask on, but you can hold their hand," she said.
Thompson noted that as with all things related to COVID-19, Barrhead Continuing Care's visitation policy could change, by order of the government, if the number of cases in a region increase.
She added that they anticipate the process will be changed after they have input from residents, family and staff.
"[Safe visitation] is a lot of work and it is something we want to do for the well-being of the residents and we want to make it as painless as we can," Thompson said.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
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