The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘A roller coaster of emotions’
Officials reflect, remain ‘vigilant’ moving forward as pandemic marks 1 year
For many senior citizens, the daily hustle and bustle of the senior center is what they look forward to on a daily or weekly basis.
When the coronavirus brought that to a halt in Ohio on March 16, 2020, it was a “devastating and scary” reality, recalls Carol Billetter, director of Madison Senior Center.
“This meant no socialization, no daily routine, no exercise groups or music trivia fun, no seeing grandchildren, as they normally would, no (going) out to lunch with friends,” Billetter said. “Even a run to the local grocery store meant having to go very early in the morning for health safety reasons.
“Even going to see the doctor was a whole new process, with having to wait in your car to be called on a cell phone to come in,” she added. “Their world was turned upside down. Resilient as they are, they learned to navigate these new processes as best they could.”
Adapting cautiously, many Madison Senior Center patrons rode Laketran to the property on a daily basis to eat, with the Lake County Council on Aging providing Meals on Wheels and congregate lunches.
Madison Senior Center staff members also delivered lunch three days a week to patrons unable to pick up meals. Produce boxes from the Lake County Food Pantry were also brought to those unable to get to the center.
Meals weren’t the only area of center operations that saw big adjustments. Naturally, new daily routines in adherence to state and local health and safety protocols were introduced, Billetter noted.
“We started delivering meals, helping seniors to physician and other appointments, and started wellness and ‘reminisce calls’ to help minimize isolation,” she said, adding COVID-19 testing became a semiweekly requirement for staff and volunteers. “A year forward, we continue those tasks while navigating the internet to sign up seniors for vaccines.”
Realizing many seniors have no access to devices or the internet, center staff began a phased opening of the building to address the issue.
Working with Madison Public Library to help determine needs and also answer tech questions, the center had 134 people participate in its Facebook Live event.
“Many questions were related to using Zoom,” Billetter said. “Our next event is scheduled for April 12. We also conducted a paper survey of patrons that included tech programming needs and concluded the same.”
In the spirit of coming together and fighting isolation, the “Special Elders” program, made up of patrons from Brighter Horizons, Perry House, Madison Healthcare and community homes, participate at the Madison Senior Center independently or with a provided caregiver.
“These individuals went on lockdown under the nursing home guidelines and it has been extremely difficult for them,” Billetter added. “We have stayed in contact through phone calls, drive-by greetings and cards.
“This past year has brought many losses of close friends to our patrons, some of those being due to COVID-19,” she said. “They have expressed their trepidation of new processes at funeral homes and churches.
“While they understand and agree with the safety of it, this is a generation or people used to paying their respects at calling hours or services, and it sometimes feels as though they haven’t made that connection to family or friends.”
As staff continues to navigate a phased approach to reopening, Billetter realizes “business as usual” will no longer be a comfortable, prevailing reality.
“We need to find ways to augment services and programming that fit the scope of seniors in our service area,” she said. “Socialization, health and wellness education, congregate meals, travel, volunteering and community efforts top out most of our patrons lists.
“But through this pandemic, we have learned we need to continue with oneon-one communication, as well as expand our tools to virtual communication and programming.”
Officials look forward
Lake County Health Commissioner Ron Graham and Dr. John Baniewicz, chief medical officer with Lake Health, emphasized Billetter’s consensus, adding the proliferation of telehealth, remote programming and testing will continue to be utilized even throughout the current vaccinations process.
“Many nursing homes and assisted living facilities were in a position of figuring out how to get testing for their residents, but hospitals and EMS had to alter protocols across the board, including general/basic admittance and visitation,” Baniewicz said. “We had to protect ourselves and our staff — we couldn’t risk the mass exposure. Not one area of the hospital was unaffected.”
Rapid testing teams were organized to bring testing to their doorstep, he added.
“Testing was progressive, and despite the numbers and demographics,” Baniewicz said. “A lot of people at the start of this thing were like, ‘Dude, I’m out!’ Now, we’re at a point where every patient, from wherever, is admitted for COVID-19. And to be fair, nursing homes throughout the state, including staff, we’re hit. And with the Lake County General Health District sending weekly reports, we were able to help keep the virus contained.
“Of course, this (past) year will be one we will never forget,” he continued. “We’ve never had to lean on each other like this, and I’ve never seen such collaboration among hospitals, local districts, state agencies and leadership from nursing homes.
“We all really united to meet this challenge, with different perspectives toward a common goal .... and it’s not over yet.”
Graham said that one year after the first documented case, the biggest challenge by far is trying to maintain essential services to the residents of Lake County while responding to the overwhelming number of individuals impacted by the virus.
“The divide has been between those who believe COVID-19 is a serious threat to their health while others believe that it’s as normal as seasonal influenza,” he said. “This is most visible in the struggle between schools and school superintendents and parents concerned about education and athletics. There is no one decision that will make everyone happy.
“2021 will continue to focus on vaccinating as many Lake County and area residents as possible,” Graham added. “We have the infrastructure, we have the partnerships, and we have everything we need, except a steady supply of the vaccine.
“We still need more help from the state to ensure the supply is consistent, to make sure it grows,” he continued. “We expect that to increase with each passing week and the hopes are that we can fully vaccinate everyone that is interested by June — I believe that we can achieve this by working together with public and private providers.”
Though the process has begun, Graham emphasized that the public needs to remain vigilant.
“We have had 318 deaths from the beginning of the event to just a few days short of the one-year mark,” he said. “This is inevitable but unacceptable. We urge everyone to get the vaccine to protect themselves and those that are susceptible to the virus. Vaccinations are critical to protecting our community and lifting the mask mandate by the
governor.
“The pandemic will have lasting repercussions on our businesses, our community, and our youth, and this last year has demonstrated that technology, data and communication, and a solid network of partnerships are essential to successfully protecting a community,” he said, echoing Baniewicz. “Ohio is one of the lowest states for per capita funding in the nation. Simply, everyone in the community needs to work together to help ensure that we can turn to work and school as quickly as possible.”
‘A roller coaster of emotions’
When the first case of the novel coronavirus came into the picture at Burton Healthcare Center, staff stepped right into action.
“Our planning paid off and our outbreak went as smoothly as you could expect given the circumstances,” said Kristina Flanigan, a licensed nursing home administrator at the Burton Village facility. “Despite feeling as prepared as we could possibly be, when we had our first case, we quickly realized the emotional toll that the dedicated staff and residents were experiencing.”
Flanigan said Burton Healthcare staff were fortunate to be able to receive information and education through state agencies and their corporation very early on.
“We felt very prepared and grateful to have the resources including PPE
from Geauga County EMA, and personnel from UH Geauga,” she said. “We tried to learn from other facilities that had outbreaks prior to ours and made changes to our plans accordingly.”
From day one, the president of Windsor House, Inc., Burton Healthcare’s parent company, was very clear that he would handle any financial concerns and the nursing home’s focus could be fully on staff and residents, Flanigan said.
“He went above and beyond securing PPE, vendors, staffing and anything else we needed including moral support,” she said. “That was a huge feeling of safety and helped us to continue to do our jobs without having the added stress of our financial future.”
Burton Healthcare staff’s biggest fear early on was how they were going to have enough staff to provide for residents, and enough PPE to keep staff and residents safe, Flanigan said.
Plans and back up plans were made, and back up plans for those back up plans were made, she said, but all the while not knowing what would happen next.
“At first, our big unknown was if it was going to happen to us,” Flanigan said. “We were not in the first group of facilities that had outbreaks and maybe even felt a little false sense of security that it could pass by us.
“As additional nursing facilities began getting outbreaks, we quickly had to move to not an if but when mentality.”
From a facility that was used to having family members and friends in all of the time for cookouts, entertainment
and other events, it was a difficult adjustment for everyone, Flanigan said. However, families have been a “true blessing” throughout this entire time.
“They have been patient and kind, often offering words of encouragement to staff and helping to keep the residents’ spirits up,” Flanigan said. “No matter what their personal feelings were about the pandemic, they were all on the same page with doing what we could for the residents.”
Flanigan said she also is grateful for the employees’ commitment, dedication and perseverance during this time.
“The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions,” she added. “We have cried when residents passed and cheered when residents have ‘kicked (the coronavirus’s) can.’ I could not have asked for a better group of people to have gone through
this pandemic with.
“Coming on to hopefully what will be the other side, I cannot be more grateful to have the team I have here at Burton Healthcare,” she added. “Our employees, the front-line heroes, are our greatest source of pride. They are heroes.”