Attendance for CHSLDs reduced | “Very difficult to accept”

Relatives of seniors with CHSLDs will have “mental pain” during the holidays: it can be difficult to accept the fate of an observer at a time, even if the increase in cases necessitates this precaution, an expert estimates.

Florence Morin-Martell
Press

“My mother will probably spend her first Christmas in a place where she does not feel at home, and she will be alone, breathing Isabel Picard, her voice trembling with emotion. It’s so hard.” CHSLD Providence – Resides in Saint-Joseph.

From December 23, visits to CHSLDs will be limited to one person at a time and a maximum of two per day. The Quebec government states that outbound travel is prohibited, except in “exceptional circumstances.”

In private nursing homes (RPAs), residents can move out. But after that if they show signs of Covit-19 they should be tested and self-isolated while waiting for the result. Two people are allowed on tours at a time, for a total of four visitors a day. At CHSLDs, as in RPAs, visitors are required to submit their immunization passport.

It will be a tough Christmas for everyone. But I think those who have parents with CHSLD will have more severe heart pain this year.

Isabel Picard

Her mother looks at her grandchildren and laments, “I want to eat good food on beautiful plates.” M^Me At CHSLD two people can see a loved one on the same day, however Picard is confused about not being able to go there at the same time.

Josie Riobel thinks her in-laws, who have been a couple for 67 years, should spend their first Christmas alone. Since last summer, his stepmother has been living in CHSLD Paul-Lisotte, north of Montreal, while his stepmother was considered too independent to follow him. But the 90-year-old said she will not be able to see her husband this Christmas because she will not be able to meet him.^Me Riobel. “I understand wives can no longer be in the same place, but it is not their choice,” he argues. I think it’s not good. ”

M^Me Riopel says he understands the need to control the damage of the Omigron variant, but he says the wife of a resident of CHSLD can go with a caregiver. “My mother-in-law worries about her husband,” she says. He would spend the holidays especially without her. “Last year, people said there would be other Christmases,” he recalled. But you do not know if another Christmas is coming. ”

The environment is “very dangerous”

People living with CHSLDs or RPAs are vaccinated three times, but their immune system is less responsive to the vaccine, warns Alain Lamar, a professor-researcher at Immunology and Virology at the National Institute for Scientific Research. These people are at high risk, especially as the number of infections could continue to rise, he says.

With the Omigron variant, “highly contagious”, these are the living conditions you need to be careful of, Mr. Lamarre continues. Outbreaks have already been reported in many CHSLDs, the professor argues.

“Now is the time to be careful,” he said. Lamar continues. Especially if we remember what happened during the first wave of CHSLDs. Is still scary. ”

“Last Christmas was scary”

For Dany Bérubé, whose mother lives in CHSLD Vigi L’Orchidée blanche in Laval, Christmas Eve happened just before December 24 this year because he was already getting people to his house that evening. Bernadette Senard, 99, is suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. “Christmas, not Christmas, is a day like the other day for her,” he argues. But she still recognizes her children, and she says seeing them is “her only joy in life.”

Mr. Berube is happy to be able to see his mother this year, unlike last vacation, which he describes as a “terrible” time. “We haven’t seen her in three months,” he says. We were not allowed to go. When I got back, it took her several weeks to recognize me. ”