Some of Australia’s largest aged care homes have gone beyond the government’s official advice to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, placing a blanket ban on all visits with exceptions only for people in palliative care in a so-called “voluntary lockdown”.
As part of broader social distancing rules announced by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, visits to aged care homes have been limited to one per day with a maximum of two people and those who have been overseas or in contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19 are banned from entering a facility.
But some of the country’s largest providers, including Allity, Estia, Regis, Opal and Japara, which run about 300 facilities across the country, have gone further, banning all except “essential” visits. Japara described its move as a two-week “voluntary lockdown”.
Other providers to ban visits include Arcare, Catholic Healthcare, Hall and Prior and St Basil’s, according to reports in the ABC and the Age. Another major provider, Bupa, has limited visits to one per day, in line with the government’s position, although it is also going further by only allowing one family member to visit at a time.
The decision from some major providers to exceed the government guidelines has drawn the support of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Of the seven people who have died in Australia from Covid-19 since the outbreak, three were aged care home residents.
But the Council of the Ageing (Cota) said the government’s current guidelines were sensible and moves to go beyond that were problematic.
“We are concerned about blanket bans and, indeed, some providers using the term ‘lockdown’,” the Cota chief executive, Ian Yates, told Guardian Australia. “There is not a need for them to do that if they are putting in place appropriate clinical safety measures.”
Yates said banning visits was also counterproductive because it could mean some residents would miss out on the care provided by their loved ones.
“We’ve given the example of the spouse who comes daily to assist a dementing partner, that person is not only providing calm and spending time with their loved one, in many cases they are assisting with feeding and basic care,” he said.
‘It’s a lot to take in’
For families, the lockout is already taking it toll. Katherine Alsop said her father Simon’s aged care facility east of Melbourne was closed to visitors from Wednesday.
“I took the day off work and went down because I thought, ‘Who knows when I’m going to see him again’,” she said. “If coronavirus did get in there, it could be the last day I could ever see him. It’s a lot to take in.”
Another issue for residents will be what to do with restrictions on movement, as well as who can visit them. While social activities have been suspended, Alsop said her dad’s provider said it would take the residents on group walks.
Alsop said her dad was independent and usually was able to leave the facility to go for a coffee or get some fresh air. “He’s not allowed to go out any more, that’s going to be a big deal for him socially.”
Asked how he had responded to the lockdown, Alsop said her dad “just gets on with it”. She expected him to find ways to entertain himself and others in the home.
“He likes music so he will make YouTube compilations of his favourite songs and get them all in a room to listen,” she said. “He was like, ‘I guess I will just make more presentations and show them to the others’.”
Still, Alsop was worried he would miss out on “little things” that the family often helped him with, like assisting him with his sleep apnea machine or his computer.
Alsop plans to FaceTime her dad and has set up remote desktop so she can help him if he needs it. And she accepts the provider’s decision to go into lockdown.
“It kind of feels like what has to happen. If it got in there, they are all really vulnerable,” she said. “It’s probably for the best. It’s just not a nice reality.”
The Morrison government announced a $444.6m injection of additional funding to support aged care facilities on Friday.