Reaction to province easing senior housing visiting restrictions mixed

BARRHEAD-Residents in facilities operated by the Barrhead and District Social Housing Association (BDSHA) will soon be able to receive visitors, in a limited capacity.

The association manages four long-term seniors facilities in Barrhead including Hillcrest Lodge, Klondike Place, Golden Crest Manor, and Jubilee Manor.

As with other long-term senior housing facilities, BDSHA facilities since April 7, have been subject to stringent visitation restrictions.

The restrictions essentially banned all visitors except in instances where patients were dying or if the visitor is essential in delivering care that can’t be handled by staff. On April 29, Alberta's chief medical officer Deena Hinshaw eased the restrictions slightly when residents of long-term care facilities who are not in self-isolation are now allowed outdoor visits with a designated essential visitor and one other person.

In mid-July, she announced the province would be easing restrictions once again.

The new policy, which came into effect on July 23, increased the number of designated support people to two for indoor visits and four outdoors.

"We heard clearly from residents and family that these restrictions were causing great stress, and in some cases, a profound decline in health status in residents who grew depressed, isolated and lonely," Hinshaw said.

Although Hinshaw created the rough guidelines for facilities, it was left to individual facilities, after consulting with residents and their families, what form these improved visitations would take.

Chief administrative officer Dorothy Schorr said to create a new safe visitation policy was a major undertaking.

One of the first steps BDSHA did was to undergo a risk tolerance assessment in which they gauged the risks involved taking into account the size of rooms, passageways, common access points and actual or perceived health status of residents in each facility as well as the number of residents who regularly go off-site.

Except for Hillcrest Lodge, the other facilities are either designated independent or supportive living, where residents have a large degree of independence. Hillcrest Lodge provides residents with assisted-living services.

As part of the process, as previously stated, the BDSHA spoke to several residents and families.

"The responses ran the whole gamut. Some people wanted it completely restricted and were happy, some wanted to go back to having no restrictions like it was before COVID while others wanted something in-between," Schorr said.

The BDSHA's Safe Visitation Policy allows for a resident to name two designated family or support members for indoor visits. It should be noted that they cannot be under 18 years old.

Visits are on Saturdays and Sundays and to limit the number of people in the buildings will be limited to five (indoor) visits at any one time. Visits must take place in the resident's suites. All visitors also have to go through a prescreening process at the Hillcrest Lodge entrance and must wear masks while in common areas.

For outdoor visits, residents can have up to four visitors (they don't have to include the designated family/support member) and must be prearranged. All visits indoor or outdoor are limited to 45 minutes.

Schorr noted the policy revaluated in three weeks.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com

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