Navigating home care during a pandemic
Over the past few months, the world has faced an unprecedented challenge. Like you, we are deeply concerned and want to do what we can to help keep our communities and our families stay safe and healthy.
Many older adults have avoided getting the care they need during the COVID-19 outbreak. We have seen an uptick in the number of hospitalizations, physical decline, and mental decline due to social isolation. Social isolation and loneliness have been linked to not only poor mental health status, but also physical health. Many older adults are not managing their chronic diseases well. Caregivers play an important role in collecting data and ensuring timely treatment. This often is a life saving measure. Caregivers ensure the execution of safe and regimented daily care. This helps older adults combat decline and enables many to live at the highest quality of life possible. The latest research suggests that this pandemic has disproportionately affected the lives of the elderly community in a negative way.
Recent reports strongly support that sedentary behavior is significantly associated to higher Sarcopenia (reduced muscle mass) rates. Home stay is usually associated with periods of muscle unloading, a circumstance that leads to rapid muscle atrophy and decline in muscle strength. For an older individual who already have reduced muscle strength and function, even small reductions during periods of disuse may be enough to trigger the well-documented negative consequences of sarcopenia, namely an impaired functional capacity. It has been shown that even short-term periods of muscular disuse (<10 days) will lead to a reduction in muscle protein synthesis that translates into losses in fat-free mass, strength and physical function. Of note, this marked effect of muscular disuse alone on sarcopenia-related phenotypes may be even greater when combined with the psychological stress associated with COVID-19 quarantine.
Ensuring the safety of older adults, staff, and families is number one to us. We have taken every possible measure to protect the lives of all our caregivers and the clients we serve. If we both practice safety guidelines, it will better ensure our continued effort to serve our communities.
What We're Doing:
We have introduced additional rigorous cleaning procedures in clients homes as well as client reminders for proper hand washing techniques.
We have reviewed existing infection control policies with our staff.
All staff have been given a COVID-19 screening questionnaire and will continue to report daily.
All staff have received COVID-19 training and an exam on the materials.
Temperature checks are performed on all staff and clients.
We provide monitoring of all clients for atypical symptoms.
Continuity of care has always been a part of our practice. We continue to do so to reduce foot traffic and provide our clients with staff that know our clients baseline to provide the most rigorous monitoring.
We have distributed more hand sanitizers and shoe covers to staff.
On each shift, clock-in caregivers, this message will pop up in our EMR:
“If you or your clients are experiencing any fever, cough, or flu-like symptoms, please contact your office immediately. Please also be extra careful by washing your hands for 30 seconds with soap at arrival and frequently throughout your shifts.”
Our top priority is keeping every client and staff member safe. We ask that everyone report to us if you have been ill, have or have recently had a fever or currently have a cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, body aches or chills, come in contact with someone who is ill, or traveled outside the U.S.
While holding off on care may initially seem like a good idea, it’s important to fully assess each older adult's situation. Finding an agency that is committed to safety with measures in place and continuity of care is top of mind may have a tremendously positive impact.