Antigonish artist Anne Camozzi hasn’t seen her husband in more than six months. He lives in a long-term care home with dementia, and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has forgotten what a tablet is and how to use it.
“What he needs for dementia to thrive is routine, stimulation and contact,” said Camozzi.
“Instead, he lives in a masked world where he only sees masks, he never sees people. He uses the word ‘spooky,’ with me.”
Camozzi is one of hundreds of Nova Scotians with loved ones in long-term care (LTC) homes, advocating for the province to both loosen visitor restrictions, and ensure those facilities have the resources they need to accommodate those changes.
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Following public protest, the province announced this week that two designated family caregivers would be allowed to tend to residents inside LTCs, and those caregivers would receive training on hygiene, mask-use and individual facility protocols.
But some LTCs in Nova Scotia still haven’t implemented previous provincial recommendations on loosening restrictions, including indoor visitation.
“We don’t know how it’s going to work because the province continually burdens the nursing homes with handling all these new things without giving them any increased funding,” said Camozzi.
As it stands, LTCs in the province have complete freedom to implement all, part or none of the government’s recommendations on allowing visitors and designated caregivers inside the property to care for residents during the pandemic.
Health Minister Randy Delorey said his department is working with LTCs that are struggling to ensure they can host adequate visitation, but confirmed he can’t enforce the restoration of freedoms that have been taken away under public health restrictions.
“Pre-COVID, there’s no mandate in these areas at all,” he explained. “The mandate and the legislative impetus is in the enforcement of the restriction through the public health order, not in the easing. When you ease it, you’re actually going back to the original state, pre-COVID.”
READ MORE: Nova Scotia easing restrictions to allow designated caregivers to help long-term care residents
The Oakwood Terrace in Dartmouth, for example, has decided not to incorporate many of the eased restrictions, remaining “closed to most access” for the last six months, according to home administrator Anthony Taylor.
He told Global News the decision — based on concern for the safety of residents — has put the relationship with residents’ families “under stress,” but the provincial government is leaving him little choice.
“The government insists on a one-size-fits all approach, fails to consider local risk and the challenges for many different providers,” he wrote by email. “I’ve been against nearly all the increased access changes that we have seen in long-term care in recent months, my position is no different with the recent caregiver’s announcement.”
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Holly Crooks, whose mother Yvonne Schwartz lives at the Northwood Halifax, said the autonomy and dignity of long-term care residents is not being respected by the provincial government, calling the latest announcement a “crumb.”
“It’s a crumb and it’s not nearly enough. We’re advocating for the physical, mental, spiritual well-being of our loved ones in long-term care,” she said.
She and her sister, Jan Marriott, take issue with the wording in the province’s latest release, which specifies that designated caregivers must have “an established caregiving relationship with the resident prior to COVID-19.”
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That wording doesn’t accommodate residents whose caregiving needs arose for the first time during the pandemic, making it easier for LTCs to avoid letting them in, she explained.
“This is the narrowest possible interpretation of allowing in family caregivers. It appears they’ve been following a model that’s been widely criticized by experts in the field of seniors’ care,” she said, referencing recent recommendations from the National Institute on Ageing on LTCs and the pandemic.
“Every person who is a resident of long-term care should have the choice to say, ‘I need these people to come into mt room and spend time with me for my well-being.'”