The Age Guide: Perspectives on the Aging Journey

Through the Looking Glass: An Ombudsman's View of the Long Term Care Lockdown Part 2

• Age Guide • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Welcome to the 2nd episode of our 3-episode mini-series, where we’ll bring you the first-hand stories and experiences of a special type of advocate an Ombudsman.  An Ombudsman advocates for older adults living in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.  You will hear from 3 different Ombudsmen in this series, all of whom were on the front lines during the COVID outbreak. Our goal in this series is to hear their stories, spread awareness about the work of an Ombudsman, and learn how we can all help protect residents’ rights in the future. In this second episode in the series, we will hear from Darcy White, a Community Ombudsman at Catholic Charities, Diocese of Joliet. Let’s listen in as Darcy tells us about what she saw and heard from residents in long-term care during the COVID-19 lockdown. #theageguidepodcast #COVID-19 #Pandemic #LongTermCare #Advocacy #ILOlderAdults #OlderAdultAdvocacy #OmbudsmanAdvocacy 

 

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to The Age Guide, perspectives on the aging journey. We are here to be your personal age guide and enhance your quality of life on the road ahead. At Age Guide, it's our mission to be a vital resource and advocate for people as we age by providing thoughtful guidance, supportive services, and meaningful connections. This podcast is about putting a face on aging and giving a voice to older adults and caregivers by highlighting their experiences and stories. We want to provide a window into the struggles and joys of aging to dispel myths and combat ageism. In the second episode in the series, we will hear from Darcy White, a community ombudsman at Catholic Charities Diocese of Joliet. Let's listen in as Darcy tells us about what she saw and heard from residents in long-term care during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

SPEAKER_02:

Darcy White, thank you so much for coming in and joining us today for this podcast. We've been doing a series on long-term care and the crisis that ensued during the pandemic, especially around the lockdown. And we know that a lot of the challenges already existed before the pandemic started. And you are somebody who is on the front lines of this issue. So we appreciate you coming in to share with us. You are a community ombudsman to Can you tell the listeners what exactly that is and what you do?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So with the ombudsman program, we are resident advocates who go into long-term care facilities, and we strictly are that. We're a resident advocate. So we make face-to-face visits. Currently, right now, we're in Will Grundy in Kankakee County. We have 84 facilities. So we make visits on a quarterly basis to every single facility and as needed, just for our casework and things like that. So we deal with all kinds of concerns from cold food to a missed shower to more, you know, a lot of sad things like abuse and neglect, financial exploitation, things like that. So with the community ombudsman too, I've been here for a little over five years and I right now I'm not only an ombudsman, but I do the training and I also do reporting and things like that. So I'm also the You have a lot of hats that you wear. Lots of hats, but I like it a lot. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's through Catholic Charities Diocese of Joliet, right? Absolutely, yes. I had to say that at the beginning. All right. Excellent. So you were obviously, you've been working there for a while. So you were working there when the pandemic hit back in March of 2020. Yes, I did. So can you tell us a bit about, you know, what you saw or heard during the lockdown? What was it like inside the facilities? in general?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. So, and I do remember the exact day that we were asked to go home from Catholic Charities. It was March 16th that we were asked to go home. And then I think it was the next day that our state ombudsman, who runs the entire state, she ordered no ombudsman to go into a nursing home. So we were actually locked out of the facilities from March 17th until, I don't think I went back until November. So there was a big chunk of time where the ombudsman program was not able to go in. We are considered, you know, we're state mandated, but we were not able to go in. Not only for our own safety, but for the resident safety, the staff member safety. There was so much

SPEAKER_02:

unknown at the beginning. Absolutely. And they didn't know what was going to happen if they let anybody in. Exactly. And yet your role is so essential to the fun functioning of those facilities and people's rights. So did you guys have any inkling ahead of time? Were you able to prepare at all or make any last minute visits or anything like the days before? Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

absolutely not. No, we were. I mean, I was up. I was in facilities that day, the day before that we were ordered not to go in anymore. So it was it was just like, hey, you can make your own decision whether or not you want to go in. We don't know what this virus is. Nobody knows anything about it. But we got the chance to make our own decision and whether or not we want to go in.

SPEAKER_02:

Prior to the

SPEAKER_01:

16th. Exactly. But I think the first time I heard about it might have been like late February, early March. But again, we had no guidance from CMS. We had no guidance from the CDC, nothing from IDPH, nothing from our state ombudsman. We were kind of just, hey, here's the virus. If you guys don't feel comfortable coming in, make your own decision. You don't have to. But You still got to work.

SPEAKER_02:

So you figured, yeah, who knows what this thing is? We were all kind of wondering, is this real? Is this just a scare thing? And it's not going to turn into being that big of a thing. And then all of a sudden it was like, bam, this is serious. And you're not going to talk to anybody again in person until months later. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

It was very scary.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

And not only scary for us, but scary for the residents, because I mean, and I mean, I'm sure I'll talk about this a lot later, but, you know, the residents had no idea what the status was in their facility. They had no idea what, or they were not being told what the new guidance was. And I mean, I'm sure we all know that there was new guidance. I mean, I felt like it was every day. We had to read through all these pages and then, you know, the CDC would make a decision and then CMS would make a decision and then IDPH would make a decision. And we had to read through all of those things. take it all in in our heads and then apply it to the situations that we were getting called about.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So not only were, I mean, we were, you know, we had access to all those things. The residents did not. And a lot of our casework came from just no communication on the facilities end to tell the residents what's going on, not only in the facility, in the region, in the state, in the United States.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. So you're trying to unpackage what the rules are, what the regulations and trying to get in touch with people who are locked down in the facilities. So

SPEAKER_01:

were you able to get in touch with people? So like I said, we were not able to physically go into a facility until November. So not only did we have to get kind of clearance from IDPH to say that we are, you know, we're state authorized representatives, I think is what they called us. And then not only did we have to wait for that guidance, our state office had to write guidance for us as well. And then we had our own policies and procedures That we had to do as well before we could go in. But I know over the summer we were able to do outdoor and window visits, but it's kind of difficult to do a window visit for a resident who's on like the seventh floor of a facility. And some of our facilities, you know, some of them are, you know, they do have window access. Some of them have two to three people in a room. It's not easy to move everybody around.

SPEAKER_02:

Give people privacy to talk about an issue that they're having with their roommate when the roommate's sitting right next to them.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And that's like the cornerstone of the ombudsman program is everything we do is confidential. So I need permission to talk about a resident situation in front of other people. Right. And it was hard to do that. And just like you were saying earlier, like what kind of communication did I have? It was so hard to even get a phone answered in these places. So I'm sure

SPEAKER_02:

they're busy. They're overwhelmed. They're getting COVID cases. They're trying to keep people safe. Their staff is low because their staff is getting sick. And then the ombudsmen are trying to call. Mm

SPEAKER_01:

hmm. So there were times when I would just call and call and call and I would be, you know, sent to the receptionist and she said, OK, here's the nurse's station. I'd be on the phone for five minutes. And because we are more or less caseworkers, you know, I do have a caseload of people that I work with within these facilities that I need to, you know, I like to have updates daily, if not every other day. And that's just how I personally do my cases, because why would I if I can solve something quicker? Why would I keep it? You know, why would I keep these residents waiting?

SPEAKER_02:

With people every day? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

So when people are not answering the phones and messages are not being brought down to the residents, it's very hard to do that. And sometimes even before we were able to do outdoor visits or window visits, we were just making phone calls. And if those phone calls were not being delivered, we were not able to talk to these residents. So it was just a big mess. It was a big mess.

SPEAKER_02:

So I would imagine that some listeners hear that and it's just kind of hard to wrap your head around a whole facility full of people who don't have access to communication devices like a telephone. Do most residents have a phone in their room or do they have cell phones or are they relying on the nurse's station telephone?

SPEAKER_01:

For the most part, they're relying on the nurse's station telephone. So, you know, some residents would be lucky and they would have a cell phone that either their family got them or they had previous to coming into the facility. You know, some people get a government phone, cell phone. So they had access. Some people did. Okay. Other than that, there should be, you know, the federal guidelines say that the resident has to have access to a phone at all times. That was clearly not happening. I wish I could remember back and see, like, oh, what kind of excuses did they give us? Oh, we didn't charge that portable phone. That portable phone's in this room right now. So many, so many, yeah. Why would it

SPEAKER_02:

not be charged at a time when nobody can get out and everybody needs to talk?

SPEAKER_01:

And it's hard to imagine, too, because if we couldn't get a hold of them, their family absolutely couldn't get a hold of them.

UNKNOWN:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So they're calling us saying, hey, have you talked to so-and-so in this facility? I haven't heard from them. Neither have I. I've been trying. And I feel bad because a lot of times with our program, because I've been here for so long before the pandemic, if I'm not getting a hold of somebody, I go and bother them in person. I'll go and see them in person and say, hey, what kind of things can I help you with? But if I can't get a hold of them during the pandemic, this was before window visits. It was before outdoor visits in which those all had to be scheduled and pre-approved by the facility. before we even were able to do that. So it was, we had a lot of cases open a lot longer and a lot of concerns that we were not able to address just because we were not getting any assistance from the facility who was also, you know, trying to take care of all the other residents, answer other phones. And granted, I know that they had a lot of things to do too, but I mean, a week of me trying to get a hold of a resident and they can't bring the phone down, it's shocking.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And it was scary. That is not right. That's so frustrating for them and for you. How would you say your caseload was during COVID? You had the people who were already on your caseload before COVID. But if you couldn't get a hold of people, they couldn't get a hold of you either and maybe didn't even know what an ombudsman was if they weren't already connected with an ombudsman prior to COVID. So now there's all these issues going on. There's all these challenging things. How did people reach out to you if they had a new complaint or a new issue?

SPEAKER_01:

They wouldn't. You know, I mean, I feel it sounds bad saying that they wouldn't, but we literally could not go in a facility. And, you know, when we go to these facilities, like I said, we go to our 84 facilities quarterly. So once, you know, once every three months. One of the things that we do on our routine visits is double check that we have our posters down every single hall in main areas in the lobby. If we're not able to go into the facility, we don't know if these posters are still up. We don't know if because some people take them down. Some people pin stuff up on top of it. which that's not, they're not allowed

SPEAKER_02:

to do that. And that's

SPEAKER_01:

something that we check when we do our routine visits. to the administrators ahead of time. And we were actually getting a lot more calls. And that's kind of how we discovered a lot more of the communication issues because we're sitting at home thinking, hey, why is no one calling us? They don't know they can call us. They don't know who we are. And that's a part of what we do when we go to do our routine visits. We educate people on what we do.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And let them know that you're there and you can actually build a rapport and a relationship with the residents and they see you there all the time. If they have an issue, they're going to feel more comfortable reaching out to you

SPEAKER_01:

exactly

SPEAKER_02:

but then when you weren't in there a lot of them probably just didn't reach out so who knows what was all going on that you guys weren't able to see oh

SPEAKER_01:

exactly and I mean the only times that we were ever getting cases are either from word of mouth from our previous residents saying hey well if you have this concern you know the ombudsman program helped us out with this here's her number or we would have family members just researching online what how can I get help how can I get help so those are the only times that we were able to do them because we weren't physically Yes,

SPEAKER_02:

that's really scary and frustrating. What kind of impact did you see then or hear about, you know, once you could get in or even if you were able to talk to somebody on the phone? What kinds of things were you seeing that were going on that were problematic in the facilities during lockdown?

SPEAKER_01:

So I think the number one thing for me, especially in my cases, was like a substantial cognitive decline that residents who, yeah, so residents who were, you know, I mean, our bar is a lot lower than everybody else. You know, I've had people be able to give me direction with thumbs up or thumbs down. There were people who I would be seeing every single time I go there, just say, hey, what's going on? Do you have any concerns? And then when I would go back after the, you know, from March to November, when I would go on back into the facilities, they had no idea who I was anymore. And granted, a lot had happened since then. But even me going into detail about what our program is to residents who I believed were fully competent had no idea who I was. So not only was it like cognitive decline, weight loss. I mean, I feel like the overall care was just so poor. that people were not getting, you know, showered on time because there was no staff members. People were not getting their teeth brushed. They were not getting their clothes washed. And if their clothes were being washed, they weren't being returned. You know, their rooms are not being cleaned up. They were, you know, their trash cans were overflowing. They had food sitting on, you know, it was. So we're getting these calls before we're able to go in. But once we were able to go in and we knew that was going to happen, we've had conversations like that. You know, once we're able to go in, it's going to be a completely different world. And it And I believe that it was because, like I said, I was here pre pandemic. I had staff members who came on during the pandemic, so they don't know anything previous to that. So, I mean, the low staffing, not only just for people who were, you know, if they actually had COVID or they had symptoms and they had to take off, you know, because there's no staff members in there, those residents are not getting their daily needs met. They're not getting therapy. They're not getting food on time. Their food's going to be cold because the people who are there are only making sure that the residents are getting their medication and sometimes they would be getting food. So things like showers and things like therapy were forgotten about because they were trying to use their staff appropriately based on what they had.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. So they just had to focus on those very, very basic essentials like food and meds. But even Even that was probably sometimes getting forgotten or overlooked.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Gosh, what kind of specific stories stood out to you about life inside the facilities during that time?

SPEAKER_01:

So I have a few. Okay, great. So one that always sticks out to me and it's still even being brought up in some residents I talk to at the specific facility. I feel like residents, especially at this place, I don't know if it's, you know, I kind of did hear it at a couple other places, not as much as this one facility. But, you know, the residents were actually felt like they were the blame of COVID. I actually had, you know, obviously visitation was halted. In all facilities. So not only were we not able to go in, family members were not able to go in. So besides the residents staying in the facility, the only people coming in and out of those are the staff members. So if the residents had COVID, you know, they did their two weeks and hopefully everybody was fine after that. Continuing on, the only people going in and out were the staff members. So the staff members were bringing it into these residents who were isolating and who were doing what they were supposed to do when it wasn't, you know, the staff members were not given or not ordered or asked to do that, you know, to give that same courtesy that the residents were doing. And especially in this one facility, residents had COVID. A staff member got COVID from the residents, brought it home. And a family member got COVID from this resident or from the staff member. That person ended up passing away, unfortunately. So when the staff member returned, they were being blamed on a daily basis for killing their family member. When that's not what happened. That's not what happened. So these residents who are sitting there, you know, isolated in their rooms, not able to talk to anybody, not able to see anybody. Now they're getting blamed for killing people.

SPEAKER_02:

They were feeling guilty and they were being blamed. Wow. And

SPEAKER_01:

that was, I mean, that was two years ago that that happened, the specific instance. And I have residents at the same facility who are still saying that, that the staff member is still mentioning these things in just normal day-to-day conversation.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, my goodness.

SPEAKER_01:

There's this one one person that I was working with where she was on hospice. And during when visitors were not able to be allowed in hospice care workers were able to be allowed in. And there was one facility who was not allowing her hospice. staff members to come in. So this specific resident had not only she had a hospice nurse, she had a hospice social worker, she had a hospice chaplain, and a hospice rehab person to come in and see her. So anybody from what we understood from the guidance is that hospice were state authorized representatives as well. So they were able to go in because they're not considered visitors. They're doing a job. They're not working for the facility, but they're doing a job for the resident. So this one facility refused to allow any hospice worker in. So she wasn't getting, you know, her medications were still coming from the facility, but, you know, the hospice care workers, they were there to spend the time and talk to this resident and make her feel comforted and talk to her, spend time with her, rub, you know, maybe like touch hands You know, just some physical touch that would that these residents have been lacking. It took me maybe two weeks of just not arguing, but, you know, saying, hey, these are the regulations. So you guys aren't following these regulations. And, you know, this resident, she's paying for hospice services. She's on hospice. You know, these staff members have to come here to do a job. And it's if you think about it in the way that I was able to kind of advocate for this, you know, for this resident to get hospice services is saying, you know, you're not able to sit with this resident and spend time with her and And, you know, this hospice care, like these hospice workers are in there to do a job. So, you know, if you're not able to do that job, you have to let hospice in. And that was the way that I was able to get her in there. So she had a ton of staff members who were able to go in there and she, I mean... This was before I was able to go in too. So I was talking to her through the window at this point. So by the time I was able to get a hospice in there, I was able to get back in there. And I actually knew this resident from a different facility before. She was a brand new woman. She was smiling more. She wasn't crying as much. I mean, it just shows how often or how important visitation and just spending quality time, even if you're just sitting next to somebody, it helps. changes the resident's whole mental health and physical health. It makes them brand new people, makes them happy again after being isolated for so long. I'm glad you

SPEAKER_02:

mentioned that because I feel like there's this balance that we as a society are going to have to reach. We have to decide whether we are protecting people from one thing at the risk of exposing them to another danger. And so it can be hard to keep people safe from COVID and we don't want people to die from COVID. We want to keep them safe, but they can also die from the isolation.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And I mean, there was actually, now that I'm thinking about it too, there was something that when, you know, we had residents or I'm sorry, when we had facilities who were not budging on the visitation, when there were certain instances where visitation was allowed. So like I said, compassionate care visits. So residents who were on hospice, who were likely in their end stages, they only had a couple of weeks, you know, they were able to have compassionate care visits, which meant they could have visitation. They were

SPEAKER_02:

supposed to be able to have compassionate care visits.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so the family members would be able to come in as long as they wanted. They had to wear full PPE and do all the donning and doffing and stuff, but they were able to spend time with them. When these, you know, these facilities were not allowing them to do it, you know, the way that we were able to kind of like get through to them is saying like you're saving them to death because you're trying so hard to protect these residents from from a virus, which we understand. We understand that. And I mean, that was kind of something that our program was teetering with, is all of these residence rights, They went by the wayside because we needed to make sure that nobody was going to get sick. But our thing was we had a lot more freedom once the guidance came out. So we were tied to that guidance. Every single time something came out, we sat there and we studied it. We sent it out to people. We just wanted to make sure that the facilities were aware of what the new rules were because they're so inundated with everything else. We need to remember these residents. You're there for the residents. So yes, you're keeping them safe by not letting people come in and expose them to the virus, but they're going to be slacking in other ways. You know, they're not getting the visitation. They're not getting one to one contact. They're not able to hold hands. And I remember, you know, Illinois Department of Public Health every Friday, they still do it, which I love it. But they have webinars every single Friday. And for the first 30 minutes, they'll share new information. And then the last 30 minutes, it's a Q&A. So when the new guidance came out that, you know, residents who are vaccinated and family members who are vaccinated, they could hold hands. The person who was presenting was crying because it was just such a, I mean, it sounds very, you know, not as important to maybe me and you right now. Right. But back then, we were all crying.

SPEAKER_02:

Everybody was craving that and needing that personal connection and that physical touch. Yeah, that was amazing. Very challenging for residents. Wow. So how about any encouraging stories from that time? I do have a couple too. It was a hard time. And I don't want to, you know, understate how devastating the lockdown was to people in facilities. But I also want people to know that there are some bright spots in the midst of it and people who rose above and beyond.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So we had a facility who, I mean, the activity directors, had such a hard time just trying to get activities out to people and keep people, you know,

SPEAKER_02:

busy

SPEAKER_01:

and not sad and lonely. They were stuck

SPEAKER_02:

in their rooms.

SPEAKER_01:

So we had one facility. I think it was December 2020. It's around Christmas and New Year's. We had one staff member who on New Year's, she had a New Year's Eve cart. So she served champagne and sparkling grape juice and she wheeled it up and down the halls and she had snacks. She was going room to room. She did a countdown and she danced with every resident. Oh, my goodness. Just to, you know, give them something to be happy about and look forward to. And she did that for every single resident. So I believe that this one was like an assisted living facility. So she was able to go room to room and things were far enough, you know, six feet apart. And the residents, they loved it. So she also dressed up as Santa Claus and she had elves help her pass out do-it-yourself holiday cookie decorating kits.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, fun.

SPEAKER_01:

So, I mean, you're going to have some facilities who just don't have... the means to do that. But if you have, you know, the staff members and the people there who want to make a difference, they're going to try to do what they can. So I think the carts were really great. I love that idea of going room to room and just getting people happy again.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And I mean, the people even can mark the holidays. Yeah, we're probably not really even sure what day it was or what was going on outside the facility at that point. They'd been locked up for so long. Yeah, we

SPEAKER_01:

all

SPEAKER_02:

were so confused

SPEAKER_01:

that year. Yes. And I mean, just in general of not only just like that specific activity director, just staff stepping up when they need, when they needed to, like, especially right when COVID hit. I had one facility, an administrator, she was pregnant at the time. She had 50 staff members quit. Oh, no. In one day. 50 staff members quit. So because she's the administrator and because she saw a need, she was testing every single resident two times a week. Wow. So, I mean, it's just you're going to see staff member or we did see staff members who saw that there was a need. And they stepped up. Yeah. If they're in activities or like, hey, I have a free hand right now. I'm going to help serve meals, which the meals and I know I wanted to mention this earlier. The meals were not on like glass plates with, you know, metal forks. It was all plastic, all foam. And I get. because of the cross-contamination. They want to make sure infection control, but just day after day of eating out of foam plates and plastic forks. It just

SPEAKER_02:

doesn't feel

SPEAKER_01:

very human. Yeah, no, not at all. So as soon as that was, you know, as soon as You know, they went back to communal dining and eating. They didn't have to eat in their rooms. The residents were ecstatic. Oh, I'm sure. And it sounds silly to talk about it now again. It's just, you know, these residents who we took things for granted.

SPEAKER_02:

So you guys were doing a lot of advocating. with those kinds of things too, like maybe talking to all the facilities about how to get people outside to enjoy some sunshine at the same time that you're trying to check in with residents and return calls to family members. So you guys were really on the front lines doing really hard work. And did you have a lot of burnout within your own staff?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I won't lie. I know I definitely did. I personally hate working from home. I work so much better in the office when I have my things, but I had to work from home, which that's OK. I was so I was itching to get back because I need, you know, the people around me to to help me focus and we can collaborate and we can talk. You know, if I have concerns about a case, I've been here for five years, but I still talk to all my staff members who have been here for a year. Yeah. Just so that we can bounce ideas off of each other. And that was I needed to get back. I needed to get back in the office. So

SPEAKER_02:

it was hard on you

SPEAKER_01:

guys. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Now that we have learned about our guests and who they are, we want them to walk up the steps, grab a microphone, and get on our age stage. This segment allows a soapbox-like platform to speak to the aging community on any topic they want to shine a light on. Darcy makes the case that the problems we saw during COVID are not new. The pandemic lockdown just strained the existing systemic problems in long-term care. We all saw the devastating results, and we all have a role to play in advocating for change. Let's listen in.

SPEAKER_02:

What do you think is sort of the big picture, not necessarily the solution to this, but maybe sort of a path toward a solution at least? What do we need to change about the way we think about people in facilities or the way we're going to implement strategies if there is another lockdown at some point?

SPEAKER_01:

So on one hand, like I was talking about with IDPH and CMS making all the rules and regulations, When they first started coming out with them, they were a little bit more broad than we would have liked because with our program, we work off of federal regulations that these residents have rights to do this, this, and this. So whenever we need an argument, we'll say, hey, well, this is the federal regulation. We were trying to do that with the guidelines that we were given, but they were a little bit more broad than we wanted. They weren't

SPEAKER_02:

specific enough for you to be able to say you have to do X, Y, Z. It could be interpreted different ways.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. And I think that was a lot. I mean, it was not only miscommunication. communication and it was misinterpretation about what we were reading as to what facilities were reading. I will say now IDPH has been very, very descriptive and they give You know, every instance that could happen with a specific area, they're going to explain it down to the bare bones, which is what we needed. Because then we have more of like, hey, this is what your guidelines say. You have to follow this. If you don't want to follow it, totally cool. You know, we can make a call to IDPH. I know you don't want them there, but we're here to work with you if you don't want to do that, you know. But I think obviously because we are resident advocates and we, you know, I don't take direction from the facility. I don't take direction from their family member or their friend or I take direction from the resident. Right. Residence rights and person-centered care is so important to just the resident's overall health. And I think that that's what we saw is, you know, making sure that these residents have access to things that they still did in the community. You know, they can still have, you know, if they should still be able to eat together, they should still be able to do some kind of activities. If they want to do a religious service, they should be able to do that. If they want to have a visitor visit, They should be able to do that. At one point it was age restriction, too. So people couldn't see their grandkids who they would see every single day because they were just not allowed in. So I think we were out from March until November. And I think the first people who were able to go in might not have been like the following February or March.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

wow. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you think that there is anything that can be done about the staffing situation? You mentioned staffing as one of the major issues and I would agree with you on that.

SPEAKER_01:

So I actually had some staff member or some facilities tell me because some people are taking advantage of staffing. the COVID rules, I guess, and the guidelines is saying, oh, well, if I've been exposed or I have a sore throat or I'm sneezing, when they probably don't have COVID, they've been tested and they don't have COVID, but they don't feel like going to work that day. So they're going to call their boss and say, hey, my throat hurts. I don't want to come in. So then they're off for two weeks. Two weeks. Yeah. And it Two weeks is a lot of time, and if we have a lot of staff members doing the same thing, this very facility was like, oh, well, I have every single other test, so we're going to do all of that. If you have a sore throat, we're going to make sure to see what sickness you have to see if you're allowed to come in here. Do you know what I mean? But I know, I think it was like two weeks ago, CMS had a new rule that it's new staffing levels. They have to meet a certain amount of staff per person. There's a quota. Not a quota. There's a certain, you know, however big the facility is, however many residents are there, there has to be this many staff members. I don't have it off the top of my head, but they increase that now. So by law, they have to have more staff members there to care for these residents. So I think that might be, you know, something... that has improved is that the staffing, they are by law ordered. And if they don't have that amount of staff members, then they get fined and cited by the state government.

SPEAKER_02:

But there's a workforce shortage at the same time. So even if they wanted to follow that, there might be challenges to that. So we probably need other policy solutions as well just to help make this job more doable for heads of household, for parents. I mean, there's a lot of different societal challenges that go into the workforce issues.

SPEAKER_01:

And I've even seen facilities where I've had a case and I'm going to talk to a staff member with a family member And they're like, we just don't have staff members. And these staff members were here every single day. Like we had directors of nursing were taking care of like they're giving people showers. That's not necessarily their job. They can do it, but that's not their job as a whole. They

SPEAKER_02:

could be doing a lot more. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

So, I mean, I'll go into these facilities even right now. I will see that there's. signs posted in the you know in the hallways or in like the hr area saying oh there's a sign on bonus is 750 if you're a cna and then you know they're they're giving money out

SPEAKER_02:

yeah

SPEAKER_01:

to people who are able to work yeah i mean obviously that's what you do to work but i mean to get actual bonuses right that's i've i haven't seen that

SPEAKER_02:

before so now they're kind of stepping up they're trying to get people to stay and Yeah, because I think being a nurse's assistant, being a CNA, it is a challenging job. And these are really important jobs. I really feel like we devalue these positions in what we are paying people to do this. It takes a special kind of person to work all day with folks who have some really serious physical limitations, serious cognitive limitations, and to be able to interact well with them and do a good job of taking care of them. That's a special skill set, not just And yet, do we really value that work if we're not paying them a living

SPEAKER_01:

wage? The facility didn't have the means to take care of this resident and give them proper care. Why do they accept the resident?

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Do you know what I mean? So definitely. Yeah, I agree with you. I can sort of comes from the top of how is the facility being managed and what is going on with the. Just

SPEAKER_01:

the environment. Yeah, the environment that these people have to work in. I can sympathize with that because I personally, I couldn't do it. I knew that. I know that I couldn't do it. But on the other hand, because I am resident directed and I am a resident advocate, I advocate for these residents to get care. So if they don't have staff members. they have to try to get staff members. So I am seeing people posting, you know, they're posting things in the hallway saying, hey, if you have a friend or a CNA or you can get an RN here, we'll give you this much money. And like I said, I've never seen that before. And it's just the climate that we are in right now. But it's I mean, it's hard. It's hard everywhere. So but again, I am I sympathize with the residents more because they're hanging out all

SPEAKER_02:

day. They definitely deserve to have good care.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Oh, I appreciate you sharing your perspective on that. Well, thank you so much for sharing your passion for this and your love of the residents. And I appreciate you coming in and taking the time to do this. Of course. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to The Age Guide, Perspectives on the Aging Journey. We hope you learned something new on this podcast because we all have a stake in promoting a high quality of life for people on their aging journey. Age Guide coordinates and administers many services for older adults in Northeastern Illinois. We serve DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties. Our specially trained professionals are available to answer questions and connect you with local service providers and resources such as Adult Protective Services Program, which responds to and investigates reports of abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of people 60 plus and adults with disabilities aged 18 to 59 who live in the community. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, which advocates for residents of nursing homes, board and care home, and assisted living facilities. They are trained to resolve problems and can assist with complaints of residents living in long-term care facilities. If you are interested in these services or want to learn more, go to our website at ageguide.org. Please follow our podcasts so when we post our monthly podcast, you are notified on your streaming account. Thank you, and we will see you next time on The Age Guide, Perspectives on the Aging Journey.