Open AccessMaintaining Resident Social Connections During COVID-19: Considerations for Long-Term Care
Author(s) -
Carla Ickert,
Heather Rozak,
Jennifer Masek,
Keeley Eigner,
Sherry Schaefer
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
gerontology and geriatric medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2333-7214
DOI - 10.1177/2333721420962669
Subject(s) - pandemic , long term care , covid-19 , phone , public health , gerontology , business , medicine , window of opportunity , infection control , medical emergency , nursing , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , computer science , intensive care medicine , outbreak , real time computing , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , virology
Worldwide, long-term care (LTC) homes have been heavily impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The significant risk of COVID-19 to LTC residents has resulted in major public health restrictions placed on LTC visitation. This article describes the important considerations for the facilitation of social connections between LTC residents and their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the experiences of 10 continuing care homes in Alberta, Canada. Important considerations include: technology, physical space, human resource requirements, scheduling and organization, and infection prevention and control. We describe some of the challenges encountered when implementing alternative visit approaches such as video and phone visits, window visits and outdoor in-person visits, and share several strategies and approaches to managing this new process within LTC.