Despite coronavirus threat, Pierce County at-home caregivers driven to serve elderly clients
Like everyone, Edith Nayiga has been taking precautions — washing her hands, covering her cough, wearing gloves and sanitizing her work spaces.
As an at-home caregiver, none of this is new for Nayiga.
It’s just that now she’s doing it during the coronavirus pandemic.
At a time when most people are being told to stay home to help slow the spread of the virus, caregivers like Nayiga are asked to do the opposite. On a daily basis, they enter people’s homes, providing companionship and often intimate care.
It’s work that carries inherent risks, only heightened by the coronavirus.
While the threat COVID-19 poses at nursing homes has been well documented, The New York Times recently noted that home health aides are also more likely to be exposed to disease and infection than many other professions.
“It’s a day-to-day thing to us. This is an extreme end, but this is what we’ve been doing every day,” Nayiga told The News Tribune when asked about the precautions she’s taking and how her work has been impacted by the coronavirus.
Nayiga, a 31-year-old immigrant, works for Catholic Community Services.
All told, the agency employs roughly 2,000 at-home caregivers throughout Washington.
Across the state, thousands more caregivers work for other nonprofits and for-profit enterprises, largely providing essential services to seniors and those with disabilities.
At Catholic Community Services, approximately 90 percent are women, according to director of Long-Term Care Peter Nazzal, and many are immigrants and people of color.
Nazzal described his agency’s at-home caregivers as highly trained, but acknowledged that most are “folks in the lower economic level.”
On average, Catholic Community Services’ unionized at-home caregivers earn $16.50 to $19 an hour, Nazzal said, working approximately 30 hours a week.
“They’re professionals, and they know what they’re doing,” Nazzal said.
While Catholic Community Services has 22 offices in Washington, Nazzal called Pierce the agency’s “bread and butter county.”
Here, according Nazzal, the agency serves nearly 700 people.
About two-thirds are over 60, Nazzal said, while about a third are younger and living with a disability.
The vast majority of Catholic Community Services’ clients qualify for services through Medicaid, and without the services many would be in a nursing home or a similar assisted-living facility, Nazzal said.
“Almost every one of the people we serve is going to have an underlying condition. That’s why they’re being served,” Nazzal said.
Four the last four years, Leann Nelson has worked as a caregiver for Catholic Community Services. The 64-year-old typically cares for four clients, ranging in age from 75 to 95.
Three of her clients live alone, Nelson said, and all rely heavily on her help.
Several have memory issues, she explained.
In addition to preparing meals and helping with shopping, Nelson said she showers and dresses her clients and makes sure they take their prescribed medications.
Even during a pandemic, many of the services caregivers provide aren’t optional, said Tamara Kirkland, a long-term care supervisor at Catholic Community Services
“You’re still going to have people that need services, even in these times,” Kirkland said when asked about the coronavirus’ impact.
As a practical matter, Kirkland said caregivers often perform essential services for their clients — like toileting and administering medication. Many clients are bed-bound, she said.
There’s also a psychological component, Kirkland noted. Caregivers often become “a cheerleader and a confidant for clients,’ she said, especially for those with limited friends and family.
“To not let them have a caregiver would be detrimental to them, because they need that person coming in that they’re used to,” Kirkland said. “It gives them that reassurance that everything is going to be OK.”
As efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 have ramped up — and fear of the virus that causes it has increased — Nazzal and Kirkland said it’s largely been business as usual for Catholic Community Services caregivers, with a few notable exceptions.
The agency has instituted a few new safety precautions, Kirkland said, like asking caregivers to disinfect their vehicles between client visits and encouraging social distancing as much as possible.
Recently, caregivers also started screening patients for COVID-19 symptoms and doing self-temperature checks, Nazzal said.
With guidance from the state Department of Social and Health Services, Nazzal said, Catholic Community Services also has recently taken steps to limit close contact. That includes allowing for telephone welfare checks and off-site cooking, he said.
Since the outbreak began, a number of clients have canceled services due to the risk of infection, Nazzal said. Some older caregivers also have expressed concerns and reduced their work, even though their paychecks and health care depend on the hours, he added.
These new steps, Nazzal said, will hopefully allow Catholic Community Services to “marry those two groups up.”
“We’re getting vital services to the clients, and we’re impacting the caregivers’ employment minimally, if we can get this figured out,” Nazzal said.
When it comes to her own health, Nayiga — who has three clients — said the coronavirus does worry her a little.
“I want to stay alive and have kids one day,” she said. “I want to get married.”
Nayiga said her faith and the people she cares for give her strength.
“Knowing that I can make a difference in these trying moments for someone else kind of keeps me going,” Nayiga said.
