‘Visitation principles’ set stage for care home reunion By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CST Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021

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This article was published 27/01/2021 (1428 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time in almost three months, Marie Bell heard her daughter tell her — in person — she loves her.

Bell, 89, is a resident of Convalescent Home of Winnipeg, a personal care home which has gone through weeks of battling an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Extremely restrictive visitation policies were enacted.

Now, as its COVID-19 numbers dropped, the facility, following guidelines set by Shared Health, has begun allowing in-person visitation — via a heated “pod” located outside the main building.

“It was good to be in the same room with her,” Bell’s daughter, Dorothy Fontaine, said Thursday.

“Of course, we’ve had a lot of contact online before this, but there is something about being in the presence of someone else. Nothing compares.”

After the pandemic reached Manitoba in early 2020, Shared Health created what it calls “visitation principles” to allow some outside contact for residents of personal care homes, whether or not their facility is amidst an outbreak.

The guidance allows staff and leaders of individual long-term care homes to decide how they can support visitations, including: online via cellphones and tablets, in outdoor shelters, inside a room near an entrance designated for visits, or in the resident’s room.

Shared Health makes end-of-life exceptions, including allowing as many as two designated family caregivers and a general visitor at one time, if physical distancing can be maintained.

“Until the province lifts the code red restrictions on personal care homes, and all our residents have had their second vaccination, I see us continuing to operate in this fashion.” – Sherry Heppner, Convalescent Home development co-ordinator

It also takes into account visitation changes when the province moves between code red, orange or yellow on its COVID-19 pandemic response scale.

Sherry Heppner, Convalescent Home development co-ordinator, said the care home decided to start slow for beginning in-person visits again.

“Until the province lifts the code red restrictions on personal care homes, and all our residents have had their second vaccination, I see us continuing to operate in this fashion,” Heppner said.

“We are allowing family visits for end-of-life situations on the unit floors, but otherwise all our visits are in the pod. This may sound overprotective, but we just don’t want to take any chances. Our residents and staff are that precious to us.”

A Shared Health spokesman said the care home guidelines and principles were put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading to residents and staff.

“These policies have evolved over time, taking into account such factors as emerging evidence, provincial restriction levels and the need for residents’ to maintain connection with loved ones,” he said.

As well, the spokesman said if a personal care home has an outbreak, no admissions are allowed unless the new resident is confirmed positive with COVID-19 (and can be cared for as such) or has had it within the last three months.

Fontaine said her mother has been a Convalescent Home resident for about seven years. Fontaine has been a visitor from pre-COVID times, to the early months of the pandemic, to the major outbreak in November which resulted in almost every resident infected with the virus and led to several deaths.

“My mother lost her roommate to the virus,” she said. “She also lost two people who she would be with, who were just lovely.”

Before the pandemic, Fontaine could visit the care home most any time, go straight to her mother’s room and even drop in for a few minutes to help her with breakfast before going to work.

“The most important thing for my mom was to tell me she loved me and me to say it back to her.” – Dorothy Fontaine

During the outbreak, the only visits they could have were by phone or computer.

“That continued, except for when the outbreak was at its worse. The recreation staff did the remote visits, but then they weren’t letting them go from resident to resident because they didn’t know how the virus was spreading,” Fontaine said.

“It was two weeks where we had no communications with the residents, except for the staff themselves calling daily with updates. We just knew everybody was staying in their room. You couldn’t help but wonder how Mom was doing.”

Then, last week, Fontaine was able to do what she hadn’t for months: visit in person.

As a designated visitor for her mother, she was able to join Bell for a half-hour, physically distanced visit.

“There was a plexiglass shield in between us. I couldn’t hold her hand or hug her. We had to wear a mask, sanitize our hands, go through questions, get our temperature taken — but I was able to see her,” she said.

“The most important thing for my mom was to tell me she loved me and me to say it back to her.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it is covering city hall, the law courts, or general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only answer the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to do it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.

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