Jodie McConnell said as soon as she heard there was a new outbreak of COVID-19 at her mother’s long-term care home, she panicked.
“I was afraid that this outbreak would be like the previous ones,” she told CBC News.
So far, the outbreak at St. Joseph’s Cottage in Sudbury, Ontario, where her mother, Jean, lives, has affected 12 residents. Across the province, there were 65 long-term care homes reporting outbreaks as of last weekend, according to Public Health Ontario data, as well as 51 retirement homes as of July 2.
Ontario’s chief medical officer confirmed this week that the province is now in its seventh wave of COVID-19, with people over the age of 80 seeing the sharpest increase in cases. The wave, which is already hitting many long-term care staff and residents hard, has some doctors and experts calling for more push for fourth doses and reinstatement of vaccine mandates for long-term care staff.
Professor Vivian Stamatopoulos, a long-term care advocate and researcher, says more needs to be done to prevent outbreaks in the sector, including rolling back vaccine mandates for staff. (Submitted by: Vivian Stamatopoulos)
Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai and University Health Network Hospitals in Toronto, says the fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that seniors are eligible for are essential to preventing deaths. But, he said, “we need to do a much better job of making sure our residents, employees and their families have access to these vaccines.”
Bringing back the vaccine mandate for staff is critical to protecting the older population they serve, he said.
Professor Vivian Stamatopoulos, a long-term care advocate and researcher, says the lifting of the vaccine mandate for long-term care workers, which happened in the spring, means “it’s still a very uncertain situation, perhaps more so now, than at any time before.”
She said the arrival of the seventh wave should trigger a resumption of the vaccine mandate.
More staff shortages ‘devastating’
Terry Crystal’s mother, Marjorie, lives at Southlake Residential Care Village in Newmarket, Ontario, a home with some of the highest cases of this seventh wave to date. The facility currently reports 20 healthcare workers with COVID-19, a figure that reached 29 a few days ago.
There were also 15 residents reported to have the virus as of a report filed Wednesday, but that was down from 47 earlier in the week.
Her mother has Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and the limited social interaction from the lockdown makes her depressed and causes stress and anxiety, Crystal said.
“I’m afraid she will lose her will to live,” she said.
Terry Crystal worries about her mother’s mental health amid yet another outbreak in the Southlake housing estate where her mother Marjorie lives. (Submitted by Terry Crystal)
Ian Da Silva, national director of operations for the Personal Care Workers Association of Ontario, which represents nearly 50,000 of these workers, says health care workers not having COVID-19 in this seventh wave compounds the challenges of a shortage of staff that already exist in a field.
“We’re talking about a staff that’s already stretched to the breaking point now and to add an infection on top of that, even one or two staff … it would be devastating.”
The association receives reports of PSWs being responsible for 30 to 40 people in their wings, he says.
“If one of them goes down with COVID, then you can quickly do a calculation to see how that affects the rest of the residents. They just don’t get care. It’s just not possible.”
It’s a concern shared by Julie Pearl, who is the primary caregiver for a dear friend living at Villa Colombo Nursing Homes in Toronto, where at least six health care workers have COVID-19.
Pearl says even the loss of one health care worker makes a difference to the care her bedridden friend receives.
She says her friend, who is fully cognitive, tells her to use the call button, but it takes a while to get help.
“If he needs to be changed or repositioned, he can wait over an hour,” she said. “For him to be in a dirty diaper? It must be changed immediately.”
The family hires a private assistant
Gene McConnell’s family made the decision to hire a personal assistant during the seventh wave. (Submitted by: Jodie McConnell)
Worried about what the outbreak at St. Joseph’s Villa might mean for Jean’s well-being, the McConnells took a more drastic step to ensure Jean had the support she needed during this wave.
The family has hired a personal assistant for Jean, but the decision is worth the price. A few hours of care provided three times a week would cost a family more than $1,000 a month, McConnell said.
Other families may consider similar options, especially if outbreaks continue or become larger.
At the Hellenic Center for Seniors in Toronto and Tilbury Nursing Home in Windsor-Essex, for example, more than a quarter of residents have COVID-19, while several staff members are also out.
CBC News reached out to the long-term care minister to discuss the outbreaks, but was told he was unavailable.
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