(The Center Square) –
It’s not just family members who can’t visit their loved ones inside
long-term care facilities, advocates for seniors with and without families
can’t make unscheduled visits and some are concerned about the overall health
of those isolated inside.
Since the COVID-19
regulations were implemented in mid-March, the state has limited visitors to
long-term care facilities. Regardless, there have been COVID-19 outbreaks and
more than half of the COVID-19 deaths in Illinois have occurred in such facilities.
Chuck Miller, deputy
state long-term care ombudsmen in Illinois, said because of state restrictions
they haven’t been able to physically visit with seniors inside their dwellings
since March 16. State guidelines encourage the use of electronic communication
such as video conferencing or email.
“One of our areas is
looking to having a robot that will be able to go into a facility and it’s a
bigger robot with a tablet with their face on there that they can talk to
residents somewhat face-to-face,” Miller said.
But, he said using
video chat isn’t the same.
“No, because when you
walk in a facility you can see, smell and hear things, and now we have to look
through windows,” Miller said.
Miller said they
understand the importance of not spreading COVID-19, but it’s difficult to be
an advocate under such conditions.
“There’s going to be a
big hit on the mental health of all of our residents because they’re isolated,
unable to see us or families,” Miller said. “So that’s just another obstacle
we’ve had to deal with.”
Illinois’ Long-Term
Care Ombudsman Program is funded by federal and state taxes. The state's Fiscal
Year 2021 budget has $2.6 million for the program. The network across the state
has managers from groups like Catholic Charities, or Legal Aid Chicago, or the
Center for Prevention of Abuse that advocate on behalf of the residents of such
facilities.
Those managers in the
state’s 13 program service areas act as the voice of residents. The advocates
field calls as minor as complaints about the quality of the food to calls about
abuse, neglect and other problems. They also perform unscheduled visits or at
least they used to before COVID-19 restrictions.
Last week,
state officials released guidelines for outdoor visits at long-term care
facilities, but Miller said that’s not enough to get the entire scope of the
quality of the living conditions and outdoor visits still must be scheduled.
“We just have not been
inside the facility,” Miller said. “We have no guidance on that yet. So that’s
unfortunate. I think they’re in their preliminary discussions on how they’re
going to implement those guidelines. We’ll follow those guidelines to get back
into those facilities.”
It’s unclear when such
guidance for indoor visits would be released. The outdoor visit guidelines were
released last week.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker
replaced two state officials who oversaw Illinois’ COVID-19 response in nursing
homes. The Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed the deputy director
of the Office of Health Care Regulation left state employment on July 20, the
same day the chief of the Bureau of Long-Term Care was put on leave. The
department did say if that was paid or unpaid leave.