Freedom, while there’s time
South of the border, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling people who are fully vaccinated that it’s safe for them to resume life — no masks or distancing required.
We’re not there yet.
But there’s one group that needs more freedom to resume something approaching normal life than Ontario is giving them. That’s people living in long-term-care homes.
They are being held hostage by pandemic restrictions and, at this point, unnecessarily so.
Almost all of them (96 per cent) are fully vaccinated with the required two doses. The vast majority of the staff (86 per cent) and essential caregivers (98 per cent) in these homes are also vaccinated with at least one dose.
Yet these residents are still being subjected to COVID restrictions that badly diminish the quality of the time they have left.
They are fast running out of time to see their family and friends before, inevitably, they die. It’s that stark and it’s that simple.
The average life expectancy of a person in long-term care is just 18 months. The pandemic is now 15 months old and for much of it residents have been largely confined to their rooms.
Ontario needs to let these people see more of their families while they still can.
The Ford government failed to protect care home residents in the pandemic’s first wave. It protected hospital capacity instead and left them stuck in overcrowded, understaffed and badly unprepared homes. Even more unforgivably, the government failed them again in the second wave, when it couldn’t even say that it didn’t know better.
It can’t now try to make up for those failures by keeping residents sealed in their homes.
Right now, most homes allow residents to receive visits from only two people registered as essential caregivers.
That means a senior like Heinz Ziebel can see most of his family only through the window of his home at Carlingview Manor in Ottawa.
He turns 91 soon. He’s asked for a birthday party, believing it will be his last, where he can see his children and grandchildren. There’s no good reason why he shouldn’t get that.
“We can’t wait anymore,” says one of his daughters. “Before he passes, we have to touch him.”
Countless other families feel the same way.
Some other provinces have already moved to double the number of essential caregivers residents are allowed to have visiting them and expanded outdoor gatherings to 10 people. Those are good ideas that should be adopted here.
More than two weeks ago, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton lifted a few restrictions, primarily inside homes, allowing for hugs, communal dining and indoor social events, and outdoor exercise and trips to the pharmacy. She promised more to come. There’s no more time to lose.
She should expand the number of visitors residents can have indoors and make provisions for gatherings outdoors, as families and seniors advocates have been calling for.
No one is advocating for wild parities at long-term-care homes. But let them see their families, their grandchildren and any friends they’ve got left.
It’s understandable that this government would be cautious in loosening restrictions, given how badly care homes have fared and how many thousands of residents have died.
Ontarians will remember the mistakes made in long-termcare for decades to come. They can only hope real change is coming.
In the meantime, let’s not compound the mistakes already made with new ones.
Not enough was done to save the lives of Ontario’s eldest and most vulnerable in the first and second waves. Now, not enough is being done to improve their lives while there’s still time.