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home / 世界杯决赛2022

covid-19 highlights help provided by family to those in long-term care

formation of provincial group needed to strengthen role of family members who help loved ones living in long-term care.

by vancouver sun

may 24 2021
read time 4 minute read
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by: kevin griffin
if there’s an indirect benefit of covid-19 in long-term care, it’s been in highlighting the importance of family members in providing care to loved ones.
in fact, describing what family members do only as visiting doesn’t fully capture what that can involve. sometimes, it’s a simple human connection with a parent or spouse. for other family members, it can also mean practical help with day-to-day tasks such as eating and personal grooming.

david hurford, chief executive officer at the three links care society , thinks that what family members do could be recognized as part of the care team.

“if a care aid was doing it, we’d measure it,” he said over the phone. “take the family out of the equation and you notice the workload increase on the care aid.”

about 90 residents live in the three links care centre in the renfrew-collingwood neighbourhood of vancouver.

hurford thinks more needs to be done to recognize the importance of family members in improving the quality-of-life for residents. he said there has been at times a lack of imagination in long-term care.
“i think this should open our eyes to the idea that we’re underutilizing this incredible resource of family care providers in the long-term care sector and finding a way to maybe make them formally part of the care team — if they want to,” he said.
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seniors advocate isobel mackenzie said that while the pandemic has shown the importance of family members in providing care, the system hasn’t been able to recognize the degree to which some family members function as care partners.

“we saw that when we shut out the visitors and heard the outcry and how distressed they were and saw the evidence out of the care homes in the increased use of antipsychotics to control behaviour,” she said. “that person was clearly really important to their quality of life on a day-to-day basis. it’s not everybody. it’s that group of residents and family members who are very involved with each other who were torn apart by the pandemic.”
mackenzie said one way to recognize the importance of family caregivers is to strengthen family and resident councils by giving them a collective voice similar to what unions, professional associations and care homes already have.

in a  report about the effects of visiting restrictions in long-term care released in november 2020, mackenzie recommended that the ministry of health work with the office of the seniors advocate to create a provincial organization for family caregivers.

“there’s no ability for these family councils to raise their concerns or issues with the health authority or to the provincial level,” mackenzie said. “the next step we need to take is to have a provincial voice that reflects the resident and family councils in each care home.”
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at three links, joan peacock is chairwoman of the six-member family advisory council. unlike other family members on the council who help a parent or wife or husband living in three links, peacock provides help for her daughter. she estimated she visited her daughter cindy about three times a week before the pandemic.
“i would just take her out and push her in her wheelchair around the block and take her to medical appointments,” she said
once covid-19 started, she was able to keep in touch with her daughter regularly by phone. more recently, she’s been declared an essential visitor so she’s been able to see her daughter again on a regular basis.
“i have been told by several people how much happier they are now that they’re able to see family members in-person and go outside,” peacock said.
family councils said to improve well-being of care residents

“resident and family councils,” a b.c. ombudsperson report said in 2009, “are important mechanisms for ensuring the well-being of residents in residential care facilities.”

family councils, the report said, help residents overcome isolation and give them greater influence over the conditions where they live — an institution that is also their home.

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the report recommended that there should be a liaison person at each facility as well as in each health authority to help with and respond to the councils. as well, the province should create a position to help develop the councils and report on their activities annually.

”the formation of regional family council organizations could serve as a needed early warning system … by allowing family councils to identify common, and perhaps systemic, problems before they become crises,” ombudsperson kim s. carter said in the report .

in the last update in june 2015, the ombudsperson reported guidelines had been sent to long-term care operators but nothing further had been done in implementing the recommendations. (an estimated 250 of 300 care homes now have some form of family council.)

“no progress; no further action,” the update said.

in december 2020, the seniors advocate said in the survey from staying apart to stay safe that the way covid-19 visitor restrictions were developed and implemented “revealed a lack of voice for residents and family members in the decision-making process … ”

she called on the ministry of health to work with the office of the seniors advocate to create a provincewide association representing the interests of care residents and family members.

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“the association would bring to the table the voice of residents and their family members in equal measure with those who own and operate care homes and the staff who work there,” the survey said .

kevingriffin@postmedia.com
 

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