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Seniors and their families adapt to residences’ precautions amid coronavirus

Tim Swift | Catholic News Service

Doris Hollis watches from a window at Caritas House as her family visits her for her 94th birthday March 27, 2020. Baltimore area senior centers have taken aggressive steps to keep their residents safe from the coronavirus. CARITAS HOUSE | CNS

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BALTIMORE — Doris Hollis, a resident of Caritas House Assisted
Living, celebrated her 94th birthday March 27. Her family brought a cake and a
homemade banner for the special occasion, but there were no hugs.

The family sang to her, but their voices were muffled as they
stood behind a picture window outside the Baltimore home for seniors. 

Caritas House isn’t accepting visitors as fears of the novel coronavirus
have put senior living centers across the country on high alert.

Baltimore Catholic organizations who run senior housing such as
Catholic Charities and Mercy Health Services have taken aggressive steps to
keep their residents safe because people older than 80 are especially
vulnerable to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

Seniors were some of the first victims of COVID-19 in the United
States when the disease spread inside a Seattle-area nursing home in late
February, killing at least 29 residents. Over the weekend, Maryland Gov. Larry
Hogan announced that an outbreak had occurred at Pleasant View Nursing Home in
Carroll County.

Hogan said 66 residents were infected, 11 have been hospitalized
and at least one person has died.

“You’ve got some anxiety. You’ve got some fear. You have
some that are thankful that we’re doing this. You have some that are still in
doubt, asking ‘Is this really happening?'” Regina Figueroa, chief
administrative officer for Stella Maris in Timonium, said of the mood on her
campus.

Caritas House, a Catholic Charities facility located on its
Jenkins Campus, just south of St. Agnes Hospital, has banned visitors.
Employees who come into the facility have their temperature taken and must wash
their hands, and surfaces are cleaned and sanitized as much as possible. Not
even the residents’ bingo gatherings have been spared.

“They like to stick to the routine,” Tim Scherer,
director of Caritas House, said of the roughly 60 residents who live in studio apartments
and normally eat meals in a shared dining room. “And this has really
changed their daily routine up.”

Meals are now delivered to the residents’ apartments and bingo is
limited to no more than 10 players.

“Their biggest concern was the burden of switching up the
bingo schedule. I got a chuckle out of that.” Scherer told the Catholic
Review, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “They want to
play, and they want to play with their friends.”

Scherer said the staff is working to find ways to keep the
residents safe while not upending their daily lives. Nurses with laptops are
now helping to facilitate video calls between residents and family members. The
residents’ weekly Mass, while no longer held in person, is broadcast to their
apartments at the same time on Sunday morning.

“We’re just trying to keep normalcy in everybody’s
life,” he said.

On the sprawling campus of Stella Maris, more than 1,000 seniors
live in a variety of settings depending on their level of care, Figueroa said.

Most of Stella Maris’ residents live on their own in luxury
apartments. They, like other Marylanders, have been advised to only leave their
homes for groceries and other essential items.

Figueroa said these residents now have the option to have their
meals provided by Stella Maris and are receiving constant updates from the
staff via email and social media.

Figueroa said that Stella Maris’ nursing and hospice facilities
are following the same strict guidelines as Caritas House — no visitors,
aggressive screening of anyone who enters the facilities and increased
sanitization.

Across Carroll County, some families have considered taking their
loved ones out of nursing homes, thinking their relatives may be safer in their
homes. But Figueroa cautions that nowhere is risk-free.

“There is a reason and a purpose for long-term care and
health care for seniors,” Figueroa said. “And even though you think
that it might be safer to care for them at home, I do believe that our
organization and every other health care center has the proper nursing care 24
hours a day, meal service, housekeeping and sanitation that would really keep
the seniors safer than being at home.”

Olga Garrish has not seen her 89-year-old mother, Julia Tsakalas,
in several weeks because of the new rules, but she said she hasn’t even
considered bringing her mother, who suffers from dementia, to her home in Cub
Hill.

“I think they’re safer where they are,” said Garrish,
an orthopedic tech for MedStar Health. “There are too many variables at
home. And you know, you got to put some faith (in Stella Maris). We’re talking
about Catholics here.”

On March 31, Garrish and her children finally were going to be
able to visit with Julia albeit virtually. Like Caritas House, the staff at
Stella Maris was arranging video calls for residents with a higher level of
care. Garrish said her mother may not remember the visit, but for her, the
“visit” will be invaluable.

“When they sent the email saying that they were going to do
this, I was so excited. It’s peace of mind for us,” Garrish said.

Swift is the social media coordinator for the Catholic
Review and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

 

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