Rainstorm shows benefit of indoor visits at care homes

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This article was published 22/06/2020 (1605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Visitors to nursing homes were allowed indoors for the first time during the pandemic Tuesday — and it didn’t come a day too soon.

A thunderstorm and burst of heavy rain about 2 p.m. in parts of Winnipeg emphasized the advantages of meeting in dry conditions under a roof, as opposed to the outdoor visits that were recently allowed.

At River Park Gardens care home, 735 St. Anne’s Road, visitors met residents indoors for the first time since March.

“(Families) were very appreciative of the option and addition of the indoor visit,” Shannon Chartrand, the facility’s director of care, said in the email.

Visitors entered a designated space through a direct entrance so they didn’t need to go through the care home. Residents have their own entrance into the visiting area.

The province now allows indoor visits at care homes if social distancing guidelines can be maintained. People must schedule visits in advance, and each visitor must answer COVID-19 screening questions before being allowed to enter. Visitors must also wear a mask.

Even with the new regulations, some families chose to sit outside River Park Gardens in the morning before the rain came. They wanted to enjoy the nice weather, Chartrand said.

That sentiment was echoed by Alan Brackman, who was visiting his mother-in-law at Thorvaldson Care Center, 495 Stradbrook Ave., on Tuesday. He and his wife Janis sat under the shade of an umbrella on the care center’s patio with Joyce Church, Janis’s mother.

“I think I’d want to be outside anyways,” Alan said. “In terms of this COVID thing, I think you’re still better off in an outside area than in a contained area.”

Beginning next week, Thorvaldson’s residents will have the choice to visit relatives indoors or outdoors.

Rules of visiting loved ones won’t change at Thorvaldson, regardless of whether visits are indoors or outdoors. People must book visits in advance. They can visit on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visits last 30 minutes, and the chairs are sanitized before the next group uses them. Residents don’t wear a mask; visitors do.

Church, 91, plans on meeting relatives outdoors as long as the weather is nice. What she appreciates most is giving her daughter a hug.

“It’s something to look forward to,” she said.

Thorvaldson didn’t see a spike in visitors signing up the first week they could come inside, Karen Banfield, the facility’s marketing director, said.

“It’s just been steady,” Banfield said. “It’s basically the same — you still have to sanitize, you still have to wear the mask.”

The care centre sees eight to 10 visits a day. Staff need to put couches and a carpet into the centre’s designated room for indoor visits before anyone can use the space.

Banfield said she’s glad residents can see loved ones in person.

“We’re just so happy they can finally be together again, even if it’s six feet apart,” she said.

Visits to personal care homes could be curtailed if the province’s COVID-19 numbers increase sharply, said Cameron Friesen, the minister of health, seniors and active living.

The province banned visits to care homes on March 17 to protect vulnerable Manitobans from COVID-19. The province plans to have outdoor, all-season visitation shelters in place near personal care homes by October, when flu season is rampant.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca