Okanagan woman questions delay in trying to visit lonely parent in care home

An Okanagan woman is urging the provincial government to speed up the distribution of funds to support in-person visits at long-term care facilities so she can see her elderly mother soon.

Carol Baker says her 92-year-old mother has been under lockdown at the Spring Valley Care Centre in Kelowna, since early March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Baker says her mother has suffered emotional and mental anguish due to being unable to see her family or leave the facility for the past five months.

“Lots of times she will phone me crying, like, ‘Why I am I locked in this place, I can’t see anybody, I can’t do anything,'” said Baker.

While Baker speaks to her mother on the phone almost daily, she welcomed news on June 30 that B.C. would allow visitation to resume under strict health and safety protocols.

The provincial visitation requirements include:

• Visits must be booked in advance.
• A single, designated visitor in a specific area
• Visitors will be screened for signs of illness upon entry,
• Visitors must wear a mask
• The facility cannot be in the midst of an outbreak.

At the time, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said it could take seven to 10 days before long-term and assisted living facilities were prepared to allow visitors.

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On Monday, July 13, Baker contacted the facility to schedule an in-person appointment to visit her mother, but was told she’d have to wait another month.

“She gave me three times in August that I could take one of, and I said ‘Can I take all three?’

“And she said ‘No, we are only booking one appointment for each family member.'”

A visit is scheduled for August 11.

“It made me feel really upset, sad. I was so excited when they announced that we get to go see them,” Baker said of the prolonged delay to see her mother.

Baker says a staff member told her the subsidized long-term care centre had not yet received the promised funding to hire three more employees to support safe visitation.

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She is encouraging the province to urgently distribute the funds: $160 million for facilities to hire up to three full-time staff in each of B.C.’s 680 long-term care homes.

“It would help our seniors that are in the homes so they can look forward to something,” said Baker, who is worried about the well-being of her mother in the interim.

“She is going to die of loneliness before she ever dies of COVID-19. It’s very hard on her.”

The elderly are in the highest risk category of serious illness or death if they contract COVID-19. More than 100 seniors have died in B.C.

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Contacted by Global Okanagan, Interior Health said it is working with all long-term care and assisted living sites regarding visitation requirements.

“We are pleased to say that over 80 per cent of our providers are now accepting social visits and we are working hard with the remaining operators to remove any barriers to allowing social visits,” Interior Health said in an email.

“Spring Valley Care Centre is accepting social visits currently, under the new guidelines, and are working to increase capacity for those visits while keeping the environment safe. This is in addition to previously scheduled virtual visits.”