Here’s hoping for a Happy Monday
Originally posted @allaboutestates.
It is hard to focus on anything outside of the current state of affairs and mounting challenges as a result of Covid. Everyone’s lives are impacted at some level, so today’s blog discusses a few elder care concerns I am seeing.
Most recently I have read that the Ontario government is making changes to long term care homes through a temporary emergency order which is supposed to assist with staffing. The order “removes training requirements for workers, allows homes to bring in volunteers and eliminates the need for administrators to report most complaints to the ministry”. While in theory we can also support additional care being made available it does not necessarily mean the providers have the necessary education/training or will be even paid appropriately to be safely delivering these services. I don’t know what this is going to look like and my fingers are crossed.
I am receiving many calls from families who want assistance dealing with increased caregiving challenges. This ranges from not being able to visit family members who may be in a hospital, retirement or long term care facility to being alone with your care-partner and not having any breaks at all as community programs have temporarily closed their doors.
Ensuring we have copies of our parent’s powers of attorney documents handy- just in case we need to act in a hurry – is another key message I am speaking with my clients about. This is especially critical if you are not living with your aging relatives.
Staying in communication either by phone or internet is also really important now for families who can no longer visit one another. For those many individuals who are not able to communicate by telephone, this makes it even more difficult.
Keep talking together. I have been so touched by watching family members sing and play music to their loved ones from afar. I thought I would share this video of one local residence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDamTmswNuU
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