CLEVELAND — At this time of year, nursing homes and long-term care facilities would normally be filling up with families, hugging their loved ones, exchanging gifts, sharing meals and even caroling.
But Covid-19 has changed all that. So, the staff at the Heartland of Twinsburg, a rehab and nursing car home, is getting creative to keep the spirit of the holidays alive.
“So, normally we would always do a holiday family dinner, so typically we do it between Thanksgiving and Christmas with all the families, then we would cater them at dinner,” Lindsay Patyak, Heartland of Twinsburg's administrator, said. “There'd be music there. We’d have an entertainer and someone from the church come in and dress up as Santa and pass out presents.”
Monday was snowman day. Staff dressed in snowman-themed clothes and masks and initiated a snowball fight with giant cotton balls between staff and residents.
Like other nursing homes, Heartland staff members have been keeping residents connected to their families for months through phone apps and window visits. And they sometimes filled in for families themselves because safety restriction prevented families from visiting.
“All of our staff signed up and a couple of residents still to make sure that every single resident got a gift from somebody this year if their family wants to be able to get it,” Patyak said.
The Heartland staff and residents begin receiving the Covid-19 vaccine Wednesday.
"I signed up to be the very first person to get the vaccine, actually,” Patyak said. “It's been it's been a really, really long year. It's been really hard to see the separation of families between our residents. And I've always seen my residents as my family. But we've had to go even more so into that with our residents this year.”
Destinee Fetter, Heartland of Twinsburg's director of nursing, said she hopes this will allow residents and their families to again meet in person.
“We are hoping that this is the start of the beginning where down the line we can get our residents back, engaged with their families in some sort of way, hopefully in person,” she said. “That would be phenomenal.”
Dr. Mark Gloth, Chief Medical Officer of ProMedica, which runs Heartland in Twinsburg and other facilities across the country, said the arrival of the vaccine is like a Christmas present.
“You don’t know quite know what to expect but you know its going to be good,” he said.
Gloth said the vaccine is safe and remarkably effective with few side effects.
He said he believes vaccine will not only save lives but improve the social well-being of the residents by letting them get close to families again. Reconnecting will improve emotional health, which, he says, is as important as the vaccine.
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Editor's Note: The below story aired on December 18, 2020