Senior advocacy group nervous about the return of Regina care home visitation restrictions
A senior advocacy group is concerned about the mental health of long-term care home residents, following the reinstatement of some visitation restrictions at Regina area facilities.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) implemented visitation restrictions at Regina zone long-term care homes Thursday morning, citing rising risk of Omicron exposures in the community.
Under level one family presence restrictions, residents or patients in affected homes can only have two designated family members or support people visit, and only one can visit at a time.
Shan Landry, the vice president of Saskatchewan’s Seniors Mechanism, said residents going through another round of limited visitation is concerning.
“We saw the negative consequences of that, and now, as restrictions start to come into place again, there's a fear on behalf of residents, staff and family members about what this will mean as we go forward,” Landry said.
Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism is an umbrella organization who bring together groups of older adult voices that promote positive aging in their communities.
Laundry said while the organization understands the SHA is trying to protect residents, their mental health is also something that needs to be considered.
“Absolutely we have to ensure that we have those safeguards in place with proper PPE, vaccinations and negative tests to ensure they're as safe as possible going in. But we have to weigh that out the risk about the mental health and emotional well-being of residents and ensure they're balanced,” Landry said.
Harbour Landing Village is one of the long-term care homes impacted by the change and staff said this new restriction will be added to those already in place.
“There are rules that we've had in place now for almost the entire pandemic overall, but our visitors will have to be screened, they'll have to have a rapid test, they'll have to have a proof of vaccine, depending where they're visiting masking rules are going to apply as well,” Janson Anderson, President and CEO of Harbour Landing Village said Thursday.
Anderson said these new restrictions will take some time to get used to once again but aren’t foreign to residents or their families.
“In some ways, it's obviously a tough thing for people, they don't get to see their full group of families that they might want to, but in other ways it's probably one of the best things to keep people safe,” he said.
The SHA said it does not take the decision to restrict family presence “lightly,” in a Wednesday news release.
“These measures are in place to keep you, your loved ones, and health care workers safe,” the SHA said.
“The Saskatchewan Health Authority is asking the public for their support and cooperation in order to contain the spread of the virus.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.