'Easing that awful burden': Nursing home owners and the new normal

Diarmuid Ó’Dálaigh, owner of Oaklodge Nursing Home, has been considering the strange aspects of the new normal.

"It’’s their home," he says of the 65 residents in the facility in Cloyne in east Cork.

Some of these residents have been living at the nursing home for eight years and protecting them means new ideas, things that previously would have been unimaginable: "We had a builder in this morning, looking at can we put up perspex, so families can visit, sit in the same room and have something between them to ease that awful burden of the distance between them."

With nursing homes pitched right in the frontline of the battle with Covid-19, Oaklodge has begun its own temporary recruitment drive just as Diarmuid has welcomed not only the redeployment of staff from other healthcare sectors, but also new measures aimed at granting greater levels of protection to both residents and staff.

So far Oaklodge has had no-one test positive for Covid-19 and Diarmuid pays tribute to the HSE for its advice which he says has helped to keep things that way. But that doesn’t mean staff can avoid planning for the worst. In addition to the perspex glass under consideration for ’’normal’’ visits, Diarmuid said the families of residents have been contacted, both to see who might want to be trained in the use of PPE so they can assist a family member if required, and so they can be with them in a worst-case-scenario.

"If in their last days they can’t see their families, that would be an awful tragedy and a travesty of their time here," Diarmuid says.

Oaklodge has asked that two people be nominated per family — ideally a spouse with a daughter or a son who would come in, fully gowned-up. Diarmuid says a separate gate has been created to enter from the rear, next to the isolation unit, and that disinfectants are in place and that anyone visiting in such circumstances would be able to have their own temperature taken, along with other precautions.

The nursing home also has its own temporary recruitment drive because, while it currently has a full complement of staff, it wants to create a panel for future positions that may be needed over the coming months, including health care assistants, registered nurses, housekeepers, food service assistants, and activity providers.

In some ways, life does go on as normal. Diarmuid says: "We have some quite elderly people who don’t have the same fear of death as younger people do They don’t seem to be too perturbed, maybe given their experience and length of life."

Some residents are very aware of the virus, he says, and feel safe where they are. Others are unaware, but irrespective, there can be a latent anxiety caused by recent changes.

"They are not being able to see the people they normally see and are missing them over a period of six weeks," Diarmuid says.

"They do have a sense of presence when people are visiting physically."

The staff at Oaklodge, who he describes as "heroes", also have a sense of anxiety and of responsibility. Management has asked them to confirm every day that they are following the guidelines and voluntarily cocooning as much as possible, with the nursing home providing a shopping and transport service so as to limit their potential exposure to the virus as much as possible.

Diarmuid believes that once the virus is under control, there could be "very, very significant changes" in how we, as a nation, treat our older people and provide care to them. One example is Oaklodge’’s application for a new Memory Care Village, aiming to change the setting from 100 people in one building to smaller settings for individuals — a different and more positive type of cluster.

That was due to open in 2021, but as with everything, it is dependent on events in the unforeseeable future.

"Life goes on as normal," Diarmuid says, or, as normal as possible.

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