LETTER: Ease restrictions at nursing homes

Staff Writer
Galesburg Register-Mail
The Register-Mail opinion page

Editors, Register-Mail: Health officials and governors are doing their best to prevent any future COVID-19 deaths. We know the elderly are more vulnerable, so they receive the more protection. Those in nursing homes are the most vulnerable and get the most protections. But what do these protections cost the residents?

Let me take you inside a room in a nursing home. The patient sits inside a small room day after day. They aren’t allowed out of the room except for showers twice a week. Sounds kind of like a jail doesn’t it?

Since there is nowhere they can go, their already weak bodies become weaker. They become LONELY. This is excruciating loneliness. They wish they would die, and many do die. They aren’t dying of COVID-19. They’re dying of loneliness.

And in spite of our being so very careful to protect them, countless still get COVID-19. How does it get into a nursing home? Most likely it comes in with an asymptomatic employee. Exposure can’t be avoided.

What happens next? The already confused and lonely resident who has become infected gets moved to an isolation ward. They’re put into a room all by themselves. Solitary confinement? They don’t just stay there until they are symptom free. They stay until they get a negative test result. That can take weeks longer.

What should we be doing?

We should use the current extreme protections only for those residents who do not want to endanger their health, and allow all others to socialize at mealtimes and during activities.

We should follow CDC guidelines for the general population when we determine how long a Covid-positive resident needs to stay isolated.

We should allow those who are willing to take the chance to go on limited outings.

We should allow limited family visits.

We should improve residents’ quality of life by allowing a barber or hairdresser to come in for regular haircuts.

Of course, whenever we allow a resident to be in close contact with a family member or an old friend, we risk having them exposed to the coronavirus. But they are already being exposed whenever they are in close contact with employees who interact with the community during their time off. We aren’t increasing the threat that much, and a family member probably cares enough about their loved one’s health to be extra cautious in the community.

Whatever we decide to do, we need to end this mistreatment of our oldest citizens, and we need to end it now! — Janice Anderson, Galesburg

Editor’s Note: This letter was edited for length.