From questions to ask a long-term care facility to some advice on minimizing loneliness, here are some key things to consider when thinking about the impact COVID-19 is having Canada’s elderly.
The deaths of dozens of seniors in Canada from COVID-19 have been an unfolding horror for anyone who may have doubted how serious the coronavirus pandemic really is.
“Now we’re actually seeing what many of us in the hospitals knew would eventually start happening — people would start dying,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network in Toronto.
Weakened immune systems and underlying medical conditions make older people especially susceptible to severe illness if they get COVID-19.
But in addition the risks to physical health, both Sinha and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, note that the protective measures of physical distancing and isolating seniors — who are already at heightened risk of loneliness and feelings of depression — can take a toll on their mental health.
“Staying connected has never been more important,” Tam said, encouraging Canadians to keep in touch with loved ones through phone or video calls.
COVID-19 has ramped up the urgency of protecting both the physical and mental health of our elderly loved ones and neighbours, Sinha told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC podcast The Dose.
Here are some things to consider:
How can we help while physically distancing?
One side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is that as Canadians have had to adopt an unprecedented lifestyle of self-isolation, they may be developing empathy for how many seniors feel every day.
“I think we’re finally seeing what they’re experiencing, right? Being in your house, not being able to just get up and go when you want to go,” said Gabrielle McMillan, a volunteer and past-president of Life After Fifty in Windsor, Ont.
When COVID-19 forced the non-profit to close its recreational centres in mid-March, McMillan and other volunteers started doing “telephone assurance” calls to elderly members try to maintain a connection in the absence of in-person social interaction.
Already, she can hear the toll that isolation is taking “in the voices of some of the people I call,” McMillan said.
When they first pick up the phone, “you can hear a bit of depression … they’re very down,” she said.
But that personal check-in, even if it lasts for just 10 minutes, has an effect.
“We talk for a bit and they’re better when I hang up,” McMillan said. “It’s amazing how much that means and how much that can help.”
Finding “creative” ways to stay in touch is critical to helping seniors get through this period, Sinha said.
Telephone calls are great, but he also recommends maintaining a face-to-face connection with seniors through Skype, FaceTime or other video chat platforms, if possible.
Some family members are going low-tech and standing outside their elderly loved one’s window, holding up supportive signs and waving.
It’s also important to remember than many seniors don’t have family members checking in on them — so small gestures by neig