Office Visit: Safe visitation critical to care
David Holden
Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been many horrible after-effects. Most would agree, one of the worst was how residents of long-term care facilities suffered unmercifully without loved ones by their side.
COVID-19 was unforgiving toward our state’s most vulnerable population. Residents of long-term care facilities found themselves locked in with nothing but a pane of glass casting a window to the world, friends and family members.
On the front end of the pandemic, “no-visitor” policies were instituted to mitigate spread and save lives, but no one could forecast the damage it would expel on the mental health of everyone involved.
Updated: Monday, April 12, 2021 - 8:41am
Long-term care ombudsmen serve as advocates for people living in Arizona nursing homes who may not have family or friends to be their voice. But where were they during the pandemic, when nursing homes were locked down? It’s a question one organization set out to answer.
The Hertel Report is a newsletter that covers Arizona s health care industry. Last September, they wanted to know if the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, which falls under the Department of Economic Security, was busier than usual given the visitor restrictions. We were expecting to write an article about, you know, demand is up 25% and these ombudsmen are scurrying all over the place and they re trying to help folks get visits with their families or they re trying to help folks get transfers, explained Jim Hammond, report’s publisher. And we couldn t find anything.
Hogares de adultos mayores buscan reabrir a un año de la pandemia telemundo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telemundo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Reopening of long-term care facilities is ‘an absolute necessity for our well-being’
For nearly a year, nursing homes and assisted living centers have been mostly closed to visitors. Now, it s time for them to open back up and relieve residents of crushing isolation, according to a growing chorus of long-term care experts, caregivers, consumer groups and physicians.
They re calling for federal health authorities to relax visitation restrictions in long-term care institutions, replacing guidance that s been in place since September. And they want both federal and state authorities to grant special status to essential caregivers family members or friends who provide critically important hands-on care so they have the opportunity to tend to relatives in need.