Managing Senior Wandering During Covid Lockdowns

The Covid lockdowns and restrictions are tough on all of us, but how much tougher are then on persons with dementia who aren’t even totally aware of the ongoing pandemic?

CTV in BC has a look at some of the challenges facing the staff at residential facilities.

“These vulnerable residents have a tendency to wander as well as a need for social connection and physical touch, leading them to enter other patients’ rooms or common areas where they could contract or transmit the virus, say doctors and advocates.

“It’s a significant problem in the time of COVID-19 and long-term care,” said Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of CanAge, a national seniors advocacy group.”

For some people with dementia or chronic wandering, there’s no such thing as social distancing. Concepts like staying 6 feet apart, masking & limiting physical contact are so new & alien that they simply cannot process them the way you or I do. As a result, residential facilities have to create physical barriers a great deal more than they would like to. This also increases emotional isolation amongst residents, worsening an already catastrophic mental health situation.

 

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