Washington D.C., Mar 4, 2021 / 15:00 pm
The U.S. must consider increasing nursing home visitation during the pandemic, one advocate for elder care told CNA.
"It's necessary to open the doors again, and end the isolation of the elderly," said Jim Towey, founder and CEO of the group Aging with Dignity, which advocates for care of the elderly. Towey was formerly legal counsel to Mother Teresa, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, and president of St. Vincent's College and of Ave Maria University.
Nursing homes and long-term care facilities have seen high death rates from the coronavirus pandemic, and thus have had strict visitation policies. Towey said that as a result, many elderly persons have been cut off from human contact and from the physical presence of their loved ones for nearly a year-with devastating consequences.
"I think what's going to emerge in the next six months is the awareness that COVID was as much a mental health crisis as an infectious disease crisis," Towey told CNA in a Feb. 17 interview. "And this is going to be true at every level of society, from school kids that are failing to thrive to seniors who have been traumatized by their isolation."
While many might see mass vaccination as heralding a return to normal life in the coming months, he said, hospitals and long-term care facilities have not yet changed their "lockdown practices" despite COVID vaccinations beginning in December.