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Nursing homes resume limited family visits for residents

Times-Tribune - 9/3/2020

Sep. 3--Janet Bausch excitedly flailed her arms as she watched her daughter, Terri Justick, approach from the pavilion outside St. Mary's Villa Nursing Home.

For months, the 84-year-old nursing home resident's only contact with family was through video chats because of visiting restrictions enacted to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

On Tuesday, she got to see her daughter in the flesh after the state Department of Health's recently eased restrictions to allow visitors for non-infected residents if the facilities where they reside meet certain criteria.

"I love your sweat jacket!" Justick, 61, exclaimed as she approached her mom.

"I do too," Bausch said, pointing to the line of cats -- her favorite pet -- imprinted on the garment.

St. Mary's is among several Lackawanna County nursing homes that recently resumed limited in-person visitation after it certified it met strict conditions the Health Department set.

To allow visits, homes must show they have not had any new COVID-19 case for 14 consecutive days. If so, they can allow visits in a designated area outside the facility with indoor visits allowed during inclement weather. After an additional 14 days with no new cases, they can allow visits in a designated area inside the building regardless of weather conditions.

The homes must also meet a number of prerequisites, including having completed universal testing of all staff and residents and having the ability to retest under various circumstances.

They also must follow other standard precautions, including not allowing physical contact between the resident and visitor, social distancing, temperature checks, face masks and hand sanitizing. If at any time there is a new COVID-19 case, visitation is halted, except in end-of-life situations, and a home must wait 14 days to resume visits.

St. Mary's takes an additional step, seating residents inside a giant, wooden booth covered by Plexiglas on three sides -- built and donated by a Covington Twp. couple. Visitors communicate with the resident by a microphone and speaker placed inside the booth.

Nancy Newcomb, president of St. Mary's Villa, said she hopes the relaxed visiting standards will help residents' mental health. Many grew despondent with the lack of interaction with family.

"We feared we would lose more lives, not directly from the virus but from the depression that was left afterward," she said. "Allowing the visits gave them hope there was a light at the end of this dark tunnel we had just come through."

Justick said while the conditions are not optimal -- she longs to hug her mom -- it's far better than the video chats.

The chats did not work well for Bausch, who suffers from dementia. She was easily distracted any time someone walked in the room and had great difficulty hearing and understanding what her daughter was saying.

Even though they can't touch, having the face-to-face interaction makes a huge difference.

"It helps her to actually visually see me," she said. "I'm not some cartoon character on a TV screen."

The in-person interaction also better visualizes the "pretend hugs" she and her mom exchange at the end of each visit.

"I tell my mom to close her eyes and hug herself with her arms, like it's me inside of them," Justick said. "She feels my hugs and she feels my kisses in her head."

Other homes allowing visitors include: Abington Manor, in Clarks Summit; Aventura at Creekside, in Carbondale; Riverside Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, in Taylor; and Allied Services Skilled Nursing Center and Linwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, both in Scranton, according to spokespeople for the homes. The Gino J. Merli Veterans Center, in Scranton, will resume visits Sept. 22, a spokeswoman said. Carbondale Nursing home is not yet able to allow visits because a staff member recently tested positive, a spokesman said.

Nancy Istenes, a spokeswoman for Saber Health Care, which operates the Dunmore Health Care Center, Green Ridge Care Center, in Scranton, Mid-Valley Health Care Center, in the Peckville section of Blakely, and Scranton Health Care, declined to identify which of the homes allow visits. That information is provided to families by the individual homes, she said.

Attempts to reach officials at Lackawanna Health and Rehab Center, in the Peckville section of Blakely, and the Gardens at Scranton, Jewish Home of Eastern Pennsylvania, Marywood Heights and Mountain View Care and Rehabilitation Center, all in Scranton, were unsuccessful.

Contact the writer: tbesecker@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9137; @tmbeseckerTT on Twitter.

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