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The coronavirus has left a trail of devastation in the elderly and nursing homes. No area of society was more affected by the first wave of infections: more than half of the Covid victims of the winter and spring died in institutions.
If someone introduces the virus into such an environment, it spreads quickly. With fatal consequences, as recent cases in Siviriez FR and Bulle FR, as well as Elgg ZH have shown: 117 people were infected in three homes and eight died. Old age and a weakened immune system contribute to mortality: According to federal information, a corona infection is fatal in 27.5 percent of people over the age of 80.
He did not enter the house for Corona
Figures like these are also concerning for older people who are considering entering a home and their families. The prospects are actually uncertain: If you don’t necessarily have to move into a nursing home or retirement home, you’re not currently doing so either. “Many people who have already registered have not entered due to the Covid crisis or have postponed entry,” the Swiss household umbrella organization Curaviva said at the request of SonntagsBlick.
The hesitancy of many older people has a direct impact on the institutions themselves: Occupancy fell by three percent across the country in the first half of the year, as the umbrella association found in a survey of 400 households.
Peter Burri of Pro Senectute says: “Due to demographics, the number of people entering the home should increase every year or at least stay the same.”
Occupancy fell three percent
Swiss households typically report occupancy rates of 93 percent. But nothing is normal in 2020. The current decline marks the largest outlier in recent years.
“If the occupancy rate continues to drop and at some point reaches too low values, the houses have an economic problem”, explains Markus Leser, Head of the Department of the Elderly of Curaviva. This is also one of the reasons the industry is considering alternatives to the classic nursing room, such as assisted living or individual daily deals.
The umbrella association also expects a three percent decrease in days of care. Three percent less corresponds to a million days of care that were not used in the Corona year.
“Greater reluctance than usual”
Spitex is currently unable to provide accurate information on what the latest development will mean for care services.
The Curaviva Department Head, Lectores, understands the wait-and-see attitude of many older people and their families. Entering the house has always been a step that had to be carefully considered: “Corona is now also disturbing, the crisis exacerbates this decision.”
Peter Burri of Pro Senectute is also experiencing “a greater degree of reluctance than usual among the elderly and family in everything.”
Felix Huber understands that grandmothers and grandfathers currently do not want to go home. The doctor is a co-author of a study for the federal Covid task force on caring for the elderly and the very old. Huber suspects that his reluctance has to do with the “strict confinement” of the elderly during the confinements: “Something like this must never happen again. Who would voluntarily choose to remain in captivity and isolation? “
Visitor bans are no longer the solution
The measures taken by the federal government hit the elderly twice: in addition to the risk of contagion, there was the misery of isolation, which left many at home confused, scared and desperate. The Independent Complaints Office for the Aging (UBA) received 127 complaints about the confinement regime.
Therefore, the fear of new restrictions is great. Epidemiologists have long been warning that the flu season will soon add to the corona pandemic, again putting the elderly and sick at particular risk.
Autumn has already begun. And with it the danger of a repeat of the fatal emergence of spring. “Visiting bans, as they were pronounced in the first wave, should no longer be the solution”, the man from Curaviva tries to reassure readers: “At that time we were run over by the crisis, we absolutely want to avoid that in the future” .
The concepts of national and cantonal protection are already available. However, in the end, each household must be able to adapt this individually to its local situation.
Study co-author Huber is convinced that the current problem is not about security, but about deprivation of liberty. “Nursing homes and nursing homes must now show that they can deal with the corona pandemic in a differentiated way,” he says. “And that they defend visitation rights in all circumstances.”
Switzerland is now experiencing its first cold and wet autumn weekend. The houses wait for things to arrive in the cold season. And the older ones wait quietly at home.
Who would blame them?
