Seniors still hardest hit by COVID-19 pandemic

TORONTO — While the deadly COVID-19 outbreak is slowing down, Canadian seniors continue to suffer enormously.

“Nursing and retirement homes have been the most tragic sites of this crisis and it is far from over,” says Dr. Samir Sinha, Canada’s leading geriatrics expert.

“In Ontario alone, deaths in its nursing and retirement homes represent almost 89 per cent of the total deaths from COVID-19 – 36 per cent of its overall cases for a population that represents 1 per cent of Ontario’s population,” says Sinha, director of geriatrics at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. As deaths continue to climb, frightened Canadians lose sleep over the ongoing threat of exposure and physical isolation of their elderly parents in care homes. Many continue to agonize over whether their parent should stay or go.

“Their No. 1 question is ‘Should I have taken them out of care?’” says Sinha, a passionate advocate for the elderly. “Many feel helpless about what to do and how to help their loved one.”

It’s still an option. According to Sinha, “people can take their parent home on any condition,” but it’s a personal decision and takes careful consideration to see if care needs can be met at home. Sinha recommends using a new decision-making aid for residents and their families to determine whether to stay or leave their retirement or nursing home.

Developed by Sinha together with the Ottawa Health Research Institute and the National Institute on Ageing, the new support tools can be downloaded at decisionaid. ohri.ca/decaids.

Laurie Enns decided to bring her mom to her Mississauga home, starting with a two-week quarantine in the basement. She was terrified her 87-yearold mom, Helen, would catch COVID-19. Although her mom’s private retirement residence has zero deaths and has taken great safety measures, it’s attached to a long-term care home that’s under attack: “To date there have been 45 cases and 13 deaths, and 23 staff have come down with it on the longterm side.”

Front-line health-care workers caring for seniors are putting in tremendous efforts, says Enns, but without proper testing and personal protective equipment, “once it starts, this virus runs rampant and takes the most vulnerable … I couldn’t live with the guilt if the residence got it and I couldn’t get her out.”

While care homes grapple with keeping residents safe, so too do their loved ones. “Many families and residents have no option but to stay put – and that’s why we have to do our best to protect them,” says Sinha.