For Alzheimer’s patients in isolation, video visits from family are a ray of sunshine
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray.”
Anne Moses takes the phone out to her porch to belt out this song to her mother, Johanna Cotter, who lives at Olympic Alzheimer’s Residence in Gig Harbor.
Johanna, a 79-year-old retired nurse who loves music, smiles happily at the Facetime camera as her daughter sings. Then, slowly, other voices around Johanna begin to join in. Elderly voices, quavering voices.
“You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
The scene, captured on video, really got to Corinna Woodley, the life enrichment director at OAR.
“Some of the emotional aspects of these calls, we sit there and just cry,” she said. It’s amazing how much emotion and love goes into these calls.”
Isolated in pandemic
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of nursing homes are more isolated than ever, unable to meet face to face with family and loved ones. Administrators at homes like Olympic are turning to Facetime, Google, iPads and cellphones to close the gap.
Olympic Altzheimers Residence, located at 3025 14th Avenue Northwest, is a memory care assistance living facility. The home takes care of up to 60 residents with different levels of dementia and Alzheimer disease.
“Prior to COVID we had a lot of family members who would routinely come and visit,” said Robina Gaines, the executive director. “We knew that would be a hard transitioning time from families from face-to-face to virtual. We reached out to the family members about the virtual possibilities so we could use these platforms to connect to their loved ones.”
Star Trek calling
Using after hour cell phones, a Chromebook laptop, tablets, and staff’s personal phones, the OAR staff schedule calls throughout the day. For those residents with hearing loss, OAR provides a device placed next to the cell phone to amplify the sound.
For residents who do not fully understand the idea of video calls, Woodley has a simple explanation: “We are in 2020 and Star Trek calling is possible now.”
“Knowing my mother is continuing to decline, as this disease progresses it’s important for her to still be in contact with us,” said Susan Olive, another one of Johanna’s children. “It’s comforting to her to have family she is familiar with and knows, who has deep knowledge of her likes and dislikes. The staff do a great job, but it’s important to have a connection with loved ones on a regular basis.”
Patrick Cotter, Johanna’s son, said he is grateful for the staff’s efforts.
“To listen to my sister’s singing and actually cope with that, that’s going above and beyond for sure,” Patrick said, laughing. “But we are really lucky, they are doing a good job of clamping down quickly.”
Rolling with it
“The people in nursing homes, they are the most vulnerable people during the pandemic,” Moses said. “I am really grateful she is safe and locked in there, I totally support the lockdown for her community. I am rolling with it the best I can, and am really grateful for the iPad and whatever they have. It seems like the perfect compromise.”
For those who do not Facetime their family on a regular basis, the staff has aimed to ensure they have not been forgotten.
“One of our team members does a Pictionary on Zoom,” Gaines said. “We connect with our laptop with the resident. While she is drawing, the resident is shouting out what is on the board. We interact and play games virtually.”
Gaines said the residents enjoy seeing their loved ones, along with the pets who pop into the picture every so often. She said that some of the stories heard over the Facetime are moving.
“We had a long-standing couple where the wife lived here and the husband visited every day,” Gaines said. “Because of the restrictions he would Google video her, and every day he would treat her like they were dating. They would be on the call and he would say how beautiful she looks, how she is the only gal for him, how she means so much to him. You can just see that love and commitment between the two.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 12:00 AM.