Care home checkup: 14 of 15 surveyed by CBC have cut visiting hours due to pandemic

People living in personal care homes have seen a reduction in quality of life since the pandemic hit. Programming has been cancelled and now families say they aren't able to visit loved ones as often as they would like.

The vast majority of personal care homes (PCHs) in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority surveyed by CBC14 out of 15have reduced visiting hours since the pandemic hit.

Some homes attribute reduced visiting hours to not having enough staff to screen and outfit visitors with personal protective equipment (PPE).

"It's ridiculous," said Lori Hildebrandt, whose mother could not go into her father's room on weekends for nearly two months because of a lack of workers to screen visitors.

Last weekBethania Mennonite Personal Care Home brought on a weekend screener, which allows Hildebrandt's mom to visit her 86-year-old father, Rudy Pankratz, but she must be out by 6pm.

"When does he want her there? In the evening, when he's going to bed. She can't go in there after 6," Hildebrandt said. "The intercom goes 'We are closing in 10 minutes,' like Wal-Mart.You need to leave."

She says instead of spending $80-million on visiting pods that are underused, the province should have given that money to personal care homes so that they could hire more staff.

"There's nobody around especially the last year," said Hildebrandt, whose mother couldn't visit her husband on Easter Sunday because it fell on a weekend.

Hildebrandt says in the last year, there have been few programs offered to residents, while staffing shortages and increased demands of the COVID-19 pandemic means they aren't getting much exercise or personal grooming.

"His hair was down to his shoulders before they finally got the hairdresser back in," she said.

Hildebrandt believes the staff at her father's care home are doing the best they can under the circumstances, but feels they could use more help.

Prior to the pandemic, many PCHs had a come and go as-you-please policy allowing for visits any time of day or night, but that was stopped due to COVID-19 screening requirements.

That real limiting of family access has really created a heightened level of social isolation. It's increased issues such as depression, worsening dementia.- Dr. Samir Sinha, geriatric expert

Visits from loved ones are a critical component to the wellbeing of PCH residents, according to Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System in Toronto and director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing.

"That real limiting of family access has really created a heightened level of social isolation. It's increased issues such as depression, worsening dementia. And we've actually seen as a resultan increase in the amount of anti-psychotic and antidepressant prescribing in these environments," Sinha said.

Bethania CEO Gary Ledoux says the home has to close at 6 p.m. because of a lack of staff.

"We can't find anyone. Who's going to want to work a two-hour shift to stay open until 8:00? And, quite frankly, people don't stay past six because that's dinnertime," Ledoux said.

A spokesperson from Shared Health says provincial guidelines have been regularly reviewed and revised with the advice of clinical experts and leaders in infection prevention and control.

Sinha says it's time for Manitoba to think about reopening its care homes while following infection control protocols and ensuring all visitors are wearing PPE.

"These settings, these places are ironically some of the safest places to be in Canada. We have seen a significant decrease in the number of deaths and cases of of COVID-19 that are happening," the physician said.

Danger from outbreaks reduced

He says where outbreaks have occurred, the cases tend to be mild and are not causing the same devastation they did pre-vaccinations.

"I think now that homes and the residents and staff have been vaccinated to a high degree, for example, we're seeing that probably the current restrictions we have in place are too restrictive, that we certainly can actually reopen homes," Sinha said.

He says the National Institute on Ageing is now working on recommendations to guide care homes across the country as they begin toreceive visitors and designated family caregivers more freely. He also recommends the resumption of communal dining,congregate activities and visits inthe community.

Manitoba has begun to loosen restrictions at care homes. Last week, Shared Health changed its definition of an outbreak from a single case totwo linked cases among staff, residents or visitors within 14 days, and where at least one case may have been acquired at the long-term caresite.

Families of personal care home residents say loved ones have suffered due to the pandemic

3 years ago

Duration 2:05

People living in personal care homes have seen a reduction in quality of life since the pandemic hit. Programming has been cancelled and now families say they aren't able to visit loved ones as often as they would like.