By: Dr. Amit Arya, CBC News<\/p>\n
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Funeral home workers remove a body from the Residence Yvon-Brunet long-term care home in Montreal on April 18, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Canada and around the world.\u00a0(Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press)<\/em><\/p>\n None of us can imagine a beloved parent or grandparent in one of the nursing homes we are reading about without an involuntary shudder. Human beings dehydrated, starving, and left sitting in their own feces and urine in\u00a0one Quebec institution<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0Military personnel deployed<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to homes desperate for staff.\u00a0More than 1,000 people dead<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in long-term care homes across the country, and many more cowering in fear, sealed off from their loved ones as COVID-19 stalks the hallways of the nursing homes they live in.<\/p>\n Some of this is particular to this pandemic. No one could have been completely prepared for it.<\/p>\n However, COVID-19 has also ripped the bandage off an open wound, revealing what was previously there. It has exposed the inadequacy of the existing system.<\/p>\n Most nursing home residents have advanced incurable conditions\u00a0\u2014\u00a0often dementia, but also heart, lung or kidney disease. People like me who work in nursing homes already know that care is driven by efficiency, rather than giving seniors with declining function the life they deserve. COVID-19 is showing us all why many of us would not choose these places for ourselves.<\/p>\n So what can we do?<\/p>\n Let’s start with the living space. How many of us would choose to spend our last years sharing a small room with one, two or even three other strangers?<\/p>\n The crowded conditions in which we warehouse our frail elderly aren’t just an issue of personal privacy, they contribute to the spread of disease. Even in normal times, seasonal flu can be a killer in these homes. And with COVID-19, everyone is now discovering what those of us working in the system always knew: many nursing homes simply do not have the space to isolate patients in order to keep people safe during an outbreak.<\/p>\n We need to create the space to provide the privacy seniors want for their dignity and autonomy \u2013 space which also serves to combat the spread of viral illness.<\/p>\n What about staff?<\/p>\n These are the people our elderly are so dependent upon. They dress many of the residents and brush their teeth. They take them to the bathroom, clean them afterwards, and give them baths.<\/p>\n To stop the spread of COVID-19, some provinces are now saying support workers may work in only one home, rather than different institutions from day to day or week to week. This will reduce the spread of the virus, but it will also build better relationships between workers and their patients.<\/p>\n