CANYON LAKE, Texas - For the past eight months, Jeanette Christensen of Canyon Lake, Texas has only been able to see her husband Steve through a glass window.
Steve, her husband of 26 years, has a rare form of dementia. He is a disabled Air Force veteran at the Frank M. Tejeda Texas State Veteran's Home in Floresville, where no visitors have been allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"That keeps him locked in and me locked out," says Jeanette Christensen.
Governor Abbott and the Texas Human Health Services Commission only began allowing outside visits a month ago, a process they called Phase 1.
"They are dying by the same rules that are designed to keep them safe. There's got to be logical compromise," says Christensen.
Christensen says the isolation has been incredibly detrimental to Steve's health. Prior to the pandemic, she was able to take Steve out for a drive and a meal every week. Steve is able to stand, walk, and perform certain tasks. However, due to dementia, he's also prone to confusion, memory impairment and difficulty with personal care.
"I'm seeing a large decline," says Christensen. "They are losing their will to live. What they feel like is that they're not having personal contact with anyone."
It's an issue that has been commonly seen across the state. Tina Hill out of Atlanta, Texas is also struggling. Her father is a double amputee at a nursing home.
"He is just severely depressed," says Hill. "He just had a mental break down. He was crying, saying how much he missed his family. He was just giving up if he couldn't spend time with his family anymore."
Christensen and Hill are both part of a Facebook group called "Texas Caregivers for Compromise - Because Isolation Kills, Too", an advocacy group that has been pushing for visitation changes in long-term care facilities. It is open to the public and has nearly 3,000 members.
Many have also signed a petition these past months to open Texas nursing homes and assisted living centers. It has nearly 24,000 signatures.
In
addition, members of the Facebook group have been creating and posting
signs in College Station that say "Isolation Kills Too!"
After months of hoping for change, family members are finally now seeing change. Last Friday, Governor Abbott announced long-term care facilities would be opening back up to visitors starting Thursday, September 24, 2020. However, formal guidelines from the Texas Human Health and Services Commission only recently came down this past Wednesday.
The guidelines for nursing facilities differ from those for assisted living facilities. There are a few notable details:
- Nursing facilities are required to allow visits from two designated essential caregivers per resident. This is voluntary for assisted living facilities.
- Facilities must be approved by Texas Human Health Services for visitation.
- Nursing homes are expected to contain any positive cases to an isolated unit.
- If a nursing facility has COVID-19 positive cases, they are still required to allow essential caregivers in. This is optional for assisted living facilities in this situation.
- Any residents with COVID-19 are not allowed to have visitors unless they are at the end of their life.
- All visitors are expected to schedule their visits, must wear PPE, and must show proof of negative testing.
You can find more details from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission here:
Essential caregivers? What? What about family, friends, neighbors, clergy?
ReplyDelete