Toronto Star Classroom Connection

It’s time to loosen the rules for seniors

ROSIE DIMANNO TWITTER: @RDIMANNO

Comes a point when the sand in the hourglass quickens from trickle to spate. Time running out far too fast.

Dwindling days. Their preciousness for our elderly in long-termcare and retirement homes – the quality of their lives – was given short shrift at the dawn of the pandemic. COVID hit so savagely, in one fell swoop of global contamination, and the ancients amongst us, already staring at the rockface of mortality, took the virus broadside.

Their deaths were legion, especially in the first wave when so little was known about the pathogen, the only defence hard-shelling facilities – the ring of steel Premier Doug Ford avowed – which in reality proved awfully porous.

If it was the best that we could do then – before the brilliance of vaccines and a deeper understanding of how the virus behaved – it shouldn’t be now.

In Ontario’s long-term homes, nearly 5,000 lives had been claimed by COVID, as of this past June. The dying has waned, not stopped.

But holding COVID in all its mutations at bay in congregate settings is a maladroit business. And still the burden is being borne most heavily by the aged.

As of Nov. 19, there were 111 active COVID outbreaks in long-term-care homes in Ontario and 93 in retirement homes, down slightly from October, though higher than the previous two Novembers. Historically – and COVID history spans less than three years – November has typically been a lowish month for infection, ahead of a December-January spike.

Yet here we are, with nearly every resident of a long-termcare or seniors residence vaccinated, multiple boosted, and still operators, in conjunction with public health units, are sequestering the elderly in their rooms in the event of an outbreak, severely diminishing the essence of those lives.

As if they have all the time in the world to recoup absence.

June McGregor is 95 years old. She moved into Revera Trillium Court in Kincardine – the retirement section, not the attached long-term-care home – in January 2020, specifically for its “social aspects’’ dimension. At that time, Mrs. McGregor was a dynamic, socially active woman — drove her own car, walked every day regardless of weather, and had no significant health problems.

“The past two and a half years, she has been in isolation more than not,’’ says her daughter, Bonnie Magwood. “We had to fight to get her out for her 95th birthday, as there were a few (COVID) cases in the home. She has had all her vaccinations, as have all her family and friends.’’

Thanksgiving was spent in “solitary confinement,’’ as Mrs. McGregor calls it.

“She was not allowed to come out with her family,’’ Magwood told the Star, exasperated anew by the restrictions. “I am not sure whether our public health leaders and politicians are covering their butts because of their screw-ups in the beginning or if they have forgotten about the stringent measures.

“I do understand their concerns. However, COVID is going to be around us for many years to come and I see the damage isolation is doing to our seniors. They should be allowed to spend their remaining years with family and friends, not locked away ‘in case’ they get COVID.’’

In COVID purdah again — though she hadn’t tested negative — Mrs. McGregor was deemed at risk because she’d dined with a resident who’d tested positive. Cloistered in her suite, all meals were brought in. Her son, the designated caregiver, was allowed in to see her but not permitted to eat with her. She spent the days knitting, doing puzzles and slipping into depression.

“We had to force her to get up and walk,’’ Magwood said. In the corridor. “She wasn’t allowed to go off the property.’’

A registered nurse who’s worked in long-term-care homes and as a general manager in retirement homes, Magwood was flummoxed by the rules imposed on her mother.

“In two and a half years, I’ve been in her apartment once. I took the test. I sat for 15 minutes. I was negative. I was able to go in as long as I wore a mask while I was in her apartment. ... Yet the odd time when she was able to come out, she could get into my car, we could go to a restaurant or shopping, without a mask.

“The regulations are just bizarre. There doesn’t seem to be any common sense.’’

Larry Roberts, spokesperson for Revera, confirms that one long-term-care resident tested positive on Sept. 21. “A mass swabbing was done of LTC residents and staff on Sept. 24, and another resident tested positive, as well as two staff members.’’ The home was placed into confirmed COVID lockdown by the Grey Bruce Health Unit on that date. On Oct. 11, the GBHU declared that outbreak over. In the retirement residence, an outbreak was declared on Sept. 22 after three residents tested positive. That lockdown was lifted on Oct. 17.

“We know that outbreak protocols are stressful for residents, their families and our staff,’’ Roberts emailed the Star. “We are trying to balance protecting residents from the spread of COVID-19 with allowing them to resume ‘normal’ life. However, we have an obligation to follow Provincial guidance and local Public Health direction.’’

Both Roberts and Denis Langlois, spokesperson for Grey Bruce Health Unit, point out that, at the time of the Trillium outbreaks, they were operating under existing Ministry of Health guidelines.

The ministry updated its guidance on Oct. 6, so that residents who had close contact with someone who’d contracted COVID were no longer required to isolate unless they developed symptom or were roommates with a confirmed case.

“All other close contacts do not need to self-isolate if asymptomatic,’’ Langlois said. “All residents are still permitted to see their essential caregivers while in isolation.’’

The definition of an outbreak has changed to two or more residents with COVID with a common link within a 10-day period. This no longer includes staff or visitors in the definition.

“The new guidance came into effect … after the Trillium Court outbreaks had been declared and after the long-term-care home outbreak had ended,’’ said Langlois. Therefore, the outbreaks were managed as per the previous guidance.

When the outbreak at Trillium was declared, community circulation of the more infectious omicron subvariant BA. 5 was also widespread. “Because of this … Public Health was being more cautious in its outbreak management response,’’ says Langlois.

So, it was Trillium’s misfortune – and the misfortune of locked-down residents such as June McGregor, who never tested positive — to fall between the cracks of guidelines.

These are real people, not abstracts on an algorithm, and they’re still stuck under health ministry guidance that apply to nobody else in the province, while the world moves on, with COVID disappearing in the rear-view mirror.

At what point do we coexist, genuinely coexist, with COVID and cease severely disrupting the lives of those who are afforded no say in the matter?

Perhaps they would prefer to live with the risk to themselves if it means enjoying their remains of the day.

NEWS

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2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://torontostarnie.pressreader.com/article/281560884804708

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