B.C.’s top doctor says every resident of a long-term care and assisted living residence can now have a vaccinated visitor, whether or not there’s a COVID-19 outbreak.
Previously, during outbreaks, residents have been limited to visitors deemed “essential,” a designation some families say was hard to get, since it must be approved by individual care homes — only about one third of long-term care residents have a designated essential visitor.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday that every resident of a seniors home is permitted an essential visitor as well as a so-called designated social visitor, regardless of whether there’s an outbreak.
The social visitor is the resident’s choice and can visit “at any time,” Henry said.
“Every single resident at their choice can designate somebody to be their visitor,” she said. “And you can have a backup in case somebody’s ill or can’t come in.”
Every visitor must be fully vaccinated and will receive a rapid test prior to entering the facility.
Victoria’s Brenda Brophy, who became a relentless advocate for seniors in care after she pulled her then 100-year-old mother Dot Finnerty out of a seniors residence amid visiting restrictions, said this may be “the first win” since pandemic restrictions began in long-term care homes.
“As long as the facilities are mandated to allow this and cannot deny it, then I feel we have our first win in this visitation nightmare,” said Brophy, whose mother died at age 101. “No more scheduling or restricting how long you stay or how often you come.
“This is what is needed. The risk of isolation has to be mitigated.”
Jeannette Harper, whose mother Marguerite Bell, 90, is at Eden Gardens in Nanaimo, said she jumped through hoops to become an essential visitor and has long argued that every resident should have had the right to an essential visitor all along.
“It’s just very disheartening that it took the provincial health officer and the minister of health almost two years to recognize the terrible impact loneliness and isolation has had on our loved ones in long-term care,” said Harper.
Harper is elated to think that now the visitation right will be applied evenly “across all health authorities and in every care home in British Columbia — no longer leaving it up to each director of care to interpret the rules as they see fit.”
Still, both Brophy and Harper say allowing every long-term care resident a visitor even during times of outbreaks must be mandated, rather than advised.
Visitor restrictions for long-term care were imposed Dec. 31 amid a spike in Omicron variant cases, prohibiting all but essential visitors, who had to receive a rapid test.
That was later relaxed to allow a designated social visitor, but because there were not enough rapid tests, social visitors were denied entry, said Terry Lake, president of the B.C. Care Providers Association.
Social visitors have also been barred during outbreaks, said Lake.
Lake said Tuesday he’s glad to see everyone will get a visitor, even in an outbreak. “I think it’s significant in that what they’re saying is everyone deserves a visitor, which is what we’ve been saying, right?
B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie said the announcement is “good news,” but residents still don’t have the right to determine if someone is an essential visitor. If visits are limited to essential visitors again, she said, “we are right back to where we started.”
On Jan. 28, the second anniversary of the announcement of the first case of COVID-19 in B.C., Henry said no group has paid as high a price during the pandemic as seniors.
Henry said it’s important to balance the need to reduce transmission of a virus that disproportionately affects people who are older against the heavy toll visitor restrictions have taken on the mental and emotional health of residents and families.
