‘Residents were being hugged by their family’
Though people have not been able to go and see their elderly family members in care homes for several weeks, but paying a ‘window visit’ was thought to be a good way to maintain social distancing whilst allowing access to families.
But paying a ‘window visit’ to the residents of the Altingerhof housing facility in Beilen in Drenthe, is no longer permitted. “We cannot do otherwise right now,” says Audrey van de Berg of healthcare provider Icare. “We saw that there was even cuddling between residents and family. This does not help to keep out the Coronavirus.”, reports RTV Drenthe.
The decision to no longer allow window visits was a difficult one for Icare employees, and was taken out of necessity. “We noticed that the visits to the windows did not go as they should. We have a garden at the residential care center where families visited our residents and even hugged them. Also, during window visits, the windows were opened. Our staff cannot play policeman continuously”, says Van de Berg.
Reactions on social media were vitriolic, and Van den Berg speaks of a sad situation with staff feeling under pressure due to the comments.
“We want to keep out the Coronavirus. Because of the situations that have arisen, this is the only solution that we currently have available. As long as we do not have a replacement alternative for the window visits, the ban will continue to apply,” says van de Berg. The situation is difficult for many clients to understand, also because a large proportion of the residents have dementia or another age-related issue.
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