B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie is asking the province to declare every resident in long-term care is entitled to designate at least one person as their essential visitor.
In a November report, the officer of the seniors advocate identified that 52 per cent of requests made by residents to designate an essential visitor were denied.
As of Jan. 1, only essential visitors are being permitted in long-term care homes, due to an increase in care home outbreaks and staffing shortages to screen everyone coming in for a visit.
“While we can all understand the need to limit the number of visitors to long-term care during this latest wave of COVID-19, returning to essential visitors without declaring that every resident is entitled to at least one essential visitor has effectively left the majority of long-term care residents without visits from loved ones,” Mackenzie said.
Current public health orders allow essential visitors to continue to visit if an outbreak is declared at a facility while social visitors’ access is suspended for the duration of the outbreak.
Prior to visiting, all visitors to long-term care facility must be fully vaccinated and rapid antigen tests are administered.
Even though the province received the report from the seniors advocate in November, to date, there have been no changes made to the process for determining if a resident meets the criteria to be designated an essential visitor.
The current determination is made by the administrator of the care facility on a case-by-case basis.
Essential visits can include visits for compassionate care, including critical illness, palliative care, hospice care, end of life, medical assistance in dying and visits paramount to the patient or client’s physical care and mental well-being.
They can also include communication assistance for persons with hearing, visual, speech, cognitive, intellectual or memory impairments, assistance by designated representatives for persons with disabilities and visits for supported decision making.
“My office is receiving phone calls and emails from family members, including spouses, who were advised they could no longer visit their loved one, even though they offer vital support and care,” Mackenzie said.
“They help to feed their loved one, get them dressed, take them for walks, and keep them engaged. For many residents, these visitors are the only people who can motivate them to engage in any activities, and yet they are not formally recognized as essential.”
On Tuesday, B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry was asked if the province would make it a requirement that every resident is entitled to an essential visitor.
Henry said the province grappled with the issue last summer and determined there were different types of visitors recognized as essential. These include visitors providing additional care and those providing emotional support.
“We have a designated social visitor that everybody, every resident, is expected to be able to have at least one. We have provision for more than one,” Henry said.
“As we’re moving into this risk phase again, we know that residents are well-protected but because they’re older and we know that immunity wanes over time, there’s still a risk. We want to minimize the number of people that are going in and out of long-term care homes during this high-transmission period.”