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{"id":2760,"date":"2021-02-21T19:40:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T19:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2021-02-21T20:14:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T20:14:41","slug":"elementor-2760","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/elementor-2760\/","title":{"rendered":"CCMCF IN THE NEWS (BRIDGE MICHIGAN) HUGGING STATION"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t

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Hugging stations: How some Michigan nursing homes fight despair amid COVID<\/h1>
$\"Clarence$ <\/picture><\/div>
Liberty Wilson, hospitality aide, holds an intercom up to Clarence “Bo” Whitmyer, so he can speak to his daughters on the other side of the glass visiting him in the vestibule at Cass County Medical Care Facility in Cassopolis. (Bridge photo by Daytona Niles)<\/div><\/div><\/div>
February 16, 2021<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
$\"Bridge$ <\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Michigan Health Watch<\/a><\/p>
Hugging stations: How some Michigan nursing homes fight despair amid COVID<\/div><\/div><\/div>
CASSOPOLIS – Phyllis Schmuhl and Linda Whitmyer step in from the monochromatic cold of a February afternoon.\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Inside the heated vestibule at Cass County Medical Care Facility, it will not matter that, for the next 14-and-one-half minutes, the sisters\u2019 conversation with their father will be the same as countless others they\u2019ve had with him in the past.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\u00a0<\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"article-paragraphs\"><div class=\"dr-paragraph full-width-text dr-paragraph--full-width-text\"><div class=\"text-long\"><p>That dementia has left him with few words.<\/p><p>That Phyllis\u2019s quip \u2014 \u201cDid you go dancing last night, Dad?\u201d \u2014 is as well worn as the faded ball cap that signifies 96-year-old Clarence “Bo” Whitmyer\u2019s time as a B-17 tail gunner in World War II.<\/p><p>What will matter is that Whitmyer\u2019s eyes are pinched at the corners, evidence of the smile behind his mask.\u00a0<\/p><p>After months of awkward window visits \u2014 sometimes with snow blowing around family members as they stood outside and shouted through the wind \u2014 he appears content.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a relief, Schmuhl said, smiling as she turns toward the exit after their visit. \u201cThat was good,\u201d she said, taking a deep breath as an aide wheeled their father back down the hallway. \u201cHe looks good.\u201d<\/p><p>Residents in many Michigan facilities are not so lucky. Across wide swaths of the state, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are now eligible under state law to resume indoor visitations with loved ones. But few appear to be making that happen.\u00a0\u201cWe hear about homes \u2014 where residents are near end-of-life, where visitation is clearly allowed \u2014 and aren\u2019t allowing\u201d visitation, said Salli Pung, head of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mltcop.org\/\">Michigan Long-Term Care Ombudsman<\/a>\u00a0program, which advocates for residents in nursing homes and similar facilities.<\/p><p>As of Friday, COVID cases counts and other health metrics had improved enough in 40 of Michigan\u2019s 83 counties, as well as the city of Detroit, to support visits from loved ones, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mistartmap.info\/compare\">MiSafeStart<\/a>\u00a0dashboard.\u00a0Equally promising, every resident of Michigan\u2019s skilled nursing facilities that wanted a COVID vaccine has had at least one dose; and more than three-quarters have taken their second dose of the two-dose regimen, as of Monday, according to the state\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus\/0,9753,7-406-98178_103214-547150--,00.html\">vaccine dashboard<\/a>. And yet?\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not hearing of a lot of facilities opening up, no,\u201d Pung\u00a0said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re in the mud and we\u2019re not moving forward.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"article-paragraphs\"><div class=\"full-width-image\"><div class=\"card card--bg full-width-image\"><div class=\"cardimage cardimage--\"><div><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/sites\/default\/files\/wave.jpg\" alt=\"Clarence \" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" data-action=\"zoom\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"cardcontent cardcontent--\">Clarence “Bo” Whitmyer waves goodbye to his daughters during a visit at Cass County Medical Care Facility in Cassopolis. (Bridge photo by Daytona Niles)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"article-paragraphs\"><div class=\"dr-paragraph full-width-text dr-paragraph--full-width-text\"><div class=\"text-long\"><p>She and others acknowledge that nursing homes must balance the months of isolation residents have endured against the threat of spreading the virus in a state where more than one-third of 15,000 deaths linked to COVID are connected to long-term care facilities.<\/p><p>The Health Care Association of Michigan, which represents some 350 long-term care facilities, said it doesn\u2019t track how many of its homes have opened to visitation. Each \u201cfacility has to have multiple procedures in place to maintain safety as well as the resources to support those procedures,\u201d HCAM\u2019s executive director Melissa Samuel said in an email to Bridge Michigan, through the organization\u2019s spokesperson. Resources, she said, include adequate staff, personal protective equipment, testing supplies and support, and space to allow for social distancing and privacy. Even so, some Michigan homes have found innovative ways to connect residents with families and loved ones, showing it can be done safely, even in regions where COVID is more widespread.<\/p><p>A British facility provided a kernel of inspiration last year. It sealed a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-leeds-54841287\">visiting booth<\/a>\u00a0made from acrylic and a bit of wood, gaining international attention, including from people running the Facebook page,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/michigancaregivers\">Michigan Caregivers for Compromise<\/a>. \u201cSet up a tarp. Put up a partition, so we can sit and see them,\u201d Dana Allen, a member of the Facebook group, which pushes for policies to reduce isolation at nursing homes amid the pandemic, told Bridge Michigan.\u00a0Facilities \u201cneed to think outside the box, for crying out loud,\u201d said Allen, who said she has been able to visit her own mother just a handful of times since COVID hit.\u00a0<\/p><p>Here are some Michigan homes that are doing just that.<\/p><h2>Finding a way<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"article-paragraphs\"><div class=\"full-width-image\"><div class=\"card card--bg full-width-image\"><div class=\"cardimage cardimage--\"><div><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/sites\/default\/files\/valentines.jpg\" alt=\"Marna Hunsburger making valentines\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" data-action=\"zoom\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"cardcontent cardcontent--\">Faye Sweet, a hospitality aide, helps Marna Hunsburger, 85, making Valentine\u2019s cards for her daughter at Cass County Medical Care Facility in Cassopolis. (Bridge photo by Daytona Niles.) Cass County, in the state\u2019s southwest corner, is one of about four-dozen Michigan counties whose risk levels remain too high for indoor visitation. Indeed, the facility Bo Whitmyer\u2019s daughters visited last week has not been immune from infection, with 13 COVID-linked deaths according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus\/0,9753,7-406-98163_98173-526911--,00.html\">state data<\/a>.\u00a0 But Whitmyer was able to see his children because the facility found a way to make the visit indoor-ish, if not exactly indoors. It also leveraged grant money to hire temporary hospitality aides, whose sole focus is to engage isolated residents and find ways to connect them with loved ones.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"article-paragraphs\"><div class=\"dr-paragraph full-width-text dr-paragraph--full-width-text\"><div class=\"text-long\"><p>During Whitmyer\u2019s visit, one of those aides held the intercom just inside the vestibule where his daughters\u2019 stood \u2014 a small glassed-in area festooned with bright red Valentine\u2019s Day cupid cut-outs. Because the aides are \u201cessential workers\u201d under state emergency measures, they get a pay boost to $17 an hour. They devote all their energy to engaging residents, allowing the facility\u2019s permanent staff to concentrate on their daily duties.\u00a0\u201cTheir jobs are to spend time with the residents,\u201d administrator Christian Lutes said. \u201cWe realized a long time ago, what folks need most here is time.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hugging stations: How some Michigan nursing homes fight despair amid COVID Liberty Wilson, hospitality aide, holds an intercom up to Clarence “Bo” Whitmyer, so he can speak to his daughters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2777,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/2777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casscountymedicalcarefacility.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}