{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fd98e87be-e6c5-46c9-8e02-9f6d147cfc75","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"The Importance of Staying Connected During COVID-19","description":"Our topic today is going to be focused around the importance of staying connected during COVID-19. And I'm really speaking more to people who have family members in long term care settings like nursing homes or assisted living. But I think there's value here for all of us. Even if you are not in one of those settings or you don't have a family member or a loved one in one of those settings. Here in Ohio, as in most states, visitation has been prohibited in nursing homes. Now, our Governor just signed a new law, which is going to take effect soon, that will allow visitation, outdoor visitation for assisted living communities. But the nursing homes on that front, they're still saying no to visitation. And what we know as health care providers is that there is a cost associated with this stance. A cost to our residents. And I understand, we all understand why it has to be done. Because we're trying to protect a very vulnerable population. But we also believe that quality of life matters and that we have to figure out some ways to combat this isolation, this feeling of loneliness, this fear, everything that our seniors are dealing with in these settings.So long story short, staying connected is important. It matters. It goes directly to health, emotional, mental and physical and we gotta do something. We've got to do better. So I've got some ideas that I want to share with you about what exactly we can do. The first thing is I think it makes sense to establish a schedule to stay connected. Checking in at a scheduled time is helpful to both your loved one and the staff at these nursing homes or assisted livings. Your loved one will be reassured, knowing you are committed to a regularly scheduled contact. And the staff will appreciate the opportunity to plan ahead to offer assistance if it's needed. So schedule a time to make a phone call or a visit or send an email or do some Facetime, Zoom, Skype, whatever it is, and then do it every single week or two times a week or however often you schedule the contact. Also schedule a reoccurring weekly care conference if you feel that it's needed and you might be reassured by that, even if you feel everybody's doing everything right. I think the more contact that you have, the more communication that you have, the better everyone's going to feel about what's going on. Care conferences provide families and staff an opportunity to discuss needs, goals, ideas about how to best meet the needs of residents. And it gives everybody a voice in the process. So I think in addition to this contact that you're going to schedule with your loved one, it makes sense to schedule a weekly care conference with the staff members, which your loved one may or may not be involved with it, your choice. It also depends on the situation. If you're dealing with a loved one with dementia, it probably wouldn't make any sense for your loved one to be included. But there are other situations where it certainly would. Plan to visit, even if it's just what we are now calling \"window visits.\" Who knew \"window visits\" were going to be a thing that would ever make any sense to us. We've witnessed firsthand the importance of visitation despite physical barriers, even if it's just seeing your loved ones. It's kind of reminiscent of what you expect when people are visiting someone in prison. Right? But that's not what's happening. No one's in prison. And we know that it is so very important to have a presence, even if you've got barriers in place. We've seen people celebrate birthdays through a window visit. We've seen family reunions. They bring the family reunion to the nursing home. We've got pictures of all this. And we're not special. Every nursing home in the country has the same type of thing going on. It's very important to be present. It's more important now than it has been previously because they don't...","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/64c5f9ff-162b-45fc-8a3f-0e822fd06333/b7ed1524f6c4a486f4f2715de22bdbd9.jpg"}