TYLER, Texas — Hundreds of thousands of Texans have waited since March to see their families.
They live in long-term care facilities, which have not allowed visitors since the pandemic began.
“On Mother’s Day, we went up and visited with her through a window,” Shelia Jones recalled. “And that was really hard for her to understand, that we couldn’t touch her or really be with her or anything, we could just talk to her through the window.”
Jones and her brother, David Starrett, have a mom who lives in in an assisted living facility in Tyler. She is 86 years old and has a form of dementia.
“Being in her room, you know, 24/7, you can tell by talking to her on the phone that it has affected her,” Starrett said. “And she has gone down some, you know, on the mental side.”
Governor Greg Abbott has required that visitors be locked out of long-term care facilities because seniors, and those with other health problems, are most vulnerable to COVID-19.
According to data from the Department of State Health Services, nearly 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in Texas have been nursing home residents. On average, nearly four residents in each of the 1,200 nursing homes in the state have tested positive.
Residents in assisting living, however, are usually in better health, so the impact of COVID-19 has been much less severe. Approximately 93% of assisted living centers have not had a single confirmed case.
Prestige Estates is one of those facilities. Its staff now pleads for the ability to bring back some visitors.
“The measures that we have in place now,” owner and executive director Kristy Redman said, “with temperature checks, and the masks, and hand-washing, and sanitization usage, those same measures could be put in place for our visitors.”
Yvonne Sturrock, the director of operations, says the staff could easily set limits, such as a schedule for when relatives could visit and designated rooms for families to use.
“If we can’t hug yet, why can’t we sit six feet apart and have a conversation,” Sturrock asked. “Why can’t someone sit at this end of the table and a loved one at the other end?”
Sturrock acknowledged that keeping residents safe is the most important thing, but the anxiety brought on by three months of isolation might be just as dangerous as the virus.
“The residents here don’t know what tomorrow holds,” Sturrock stated. “They don’t know how many days they have left. And so, we’re protecting them into a depression and to their death.”
Many of the seniors in assisted living and nursing homes also have dementia, which makes the adjustment to COVID-19 restrictions even harder.
“[My mother] is locked down in her room; not just in the facility, in her room. It’s hard because she can’t comprehend what’s going on out here in the real world," Starrett said. "And so, just not being able to see her or get her to understand and explain it to her where she can understand, is really hard on the loved ones.
“The last we heard is that you can check them out and take them to a doctor’s appointment. But, with my mother in her mental state, we were just afraid if we checked her out, then she wouldn’t want to go back in.”
Jones says she does not think family members would pose a risk to the residents because they would be so careful not to infect their loved ones.
“I mean, the workers come and go, and they just take their temperature when they come and go,” Jones said. “They wear masks. I would wear a mask. I wear a mask at work. So, I would do that just to be able to see my mother.”
At Prestige Estates, the activities coordinator leads stretching sessions every morning and organizes games for residents to play in their hallways. Meals are delivered to each room, so even their best efforts are not enough to simulate the level of social interaction residents are used to.
“We can do all the things in the world within the facility here to keep morale up,” Sturrock said. "We can be silly, we can have games, we can do all the things in the world. But, at the end of the day, they want to see their loved one.”
Governor Abbott has not indicated when he would ease the restrictions on long-term care facilities, but one state health care leader told CBS19 that a plan is being conceived at the moment.
