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Social Isolation for Seniors 

Let’s start with a common and personal story from Kevin McCormack about his son and the effects of social isolation on seniors.

“This is a little story about my son. He took a year off from college after high school worked for the post office delivering mail. After a few weeks of work he came home and told me that the seniors on his route would wait for him regularly. They would wait outside and offer him a drink or food, anything to just talk for a few minutes. 

They anticipated seeing him every day and what he brought in the mail. He was just dumbfounded by it; that such a mundane delivery of the mail was one of, if not the most important part of someone’s day. He just didn’t realize when he started how lonely and isolated people are in America right now.”

The loneliness of so many elders at home, in assisted living, and especially in skilled nursing facilities is extremely important and something that long-term care facilities across the world are grappling with now.

What is Social Isolation?

Social isolation is the lack of contact between an individual and their family, friends, and society which leads to sadness, general boredom, lack of interest, societal withdrawal, and a decline in overall health. 

This can include, but is not limited to:

  • A decline in personal hygiene
  • Poor eating and nutrition
  • Declines in health including cognitive decline, anxiety, and depression

Increased Isolation Due to Covid-19

It’s no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has substantially increased social isolation in skilled nursing and senior care facilities whose residents are isolated from the community, family, and friends as well as the rest of the residents during the pandemic. For some great quotes on what nurses and residents are saying about social isolation, take a look at this article from the AARP.

Kevin McCormack says in the interview above:

“I have seen this social isolation on a personal level with my father in-law during his last few years. As he approached his late 90’s even with 8 adult children and 30 grandchildren social isolation was hard to combat… All of his contemporaries were gone.

And even now, with the younger people have the issue, I’ve got two at home that are in college, but they can’t go to the campus so that everything’s remote, there’s blocked off from their college fun and all the college interactions. It’s very difficult for them. [When you see it firsthand] you get an understanding and it really hits home.”

Here is a great study on students facing depression and loneliness due to Covid.

What can be done to combat Social Isolation in Skilled Nursing Facilities during Covid-19?

During Covid-19, loneliness and isolation are at an all-time high in skilled nursing facilities. But there are a number of great tools and techniques available to help residents and staff beat the isolation and loneliness. 

Getting You Skilled Nursing Garden Going

Promoting a sense of purpose and need with a hobby brings a bright light to the everyday mundane life in many nursing facilities. Encouraging able residents to do a volunteer job such as gardening gets people looking forward to growth during a time of decline in their lives. Additionally, many elders in nursing facilities came from a different era where agriculture was a way of life, so seeing sprouts can bring them back to their roots. 

Many facilities already have a small garden, and if your facility doesn’t, think about putting one together. Even a small herb garden in the window of a resident can be something to take care of and give a sense of responsibility and need. In addition to the clear benefits of gardening, there is also the benefit of sunlight that cannot be underestimated.

Here are some great resources on getting a garden set up at your facility:

Pet Programs in Skilled Nursing, Rehab, and Assisted Living

Pet Therapy In Long Term Care

Visiting pet programs can be very successful, and the emotional benefits of dogs and cats can’t be overlooked. Pet Visitation Therapy is the most common type of pet therapy in skilled nursing.  A once a week visit can be uplifting to a socially isolated resident, especially for a person that kept pets earlier in life. 

Bringing pets into a facility can lead to: 

  • Improved mental functioning
  • Lowered anxiety
  • Greater physical activity
  • A decrease in loneliness. 

To quote a Journals of Gerontology study “Animal Assisted Therapy reduces loneliness in residents of long-term care facilities.” 

How does the use of adaptive technologies help social isolation?

Being disconnected from the people around a resident, especially when they are close by, can be just as anxiety-producing and depressing as enforced social isolation due to the spread of an infection such as COVID. Keeping people connected is critical to decreasing this form of social isolation. 

Hearing Aids

Getting a hearing aid put in

Hearing aids are a key tool to help defeat isolation and depression. If a person can’t hear a conversation, music, TV, or a phone call, essentially, they can’t interact with the world. Sometimes SNF and ALF residents that need hearing aids see them as signaling that they are old so they don’t like to use them. Encouraging the use of hearing aids can increase interaction with the staff, family, and volunteers.

Getting Around with adaptive technologies

Other adaptive technologies as simple as a cane or walker can get a resident out of their room to interact with staff, other residents, and volunteers. Make sure residents are up to date on their vision tests and wear the proper glasses if someone can’t see well half of their social contact is lost not seeing body language as an example.

For more information, here is a great article on using adaptive technologies and equipment in Skilled Nursing Facilities.

Can computer technology help with social isolation?

From the interview above, Jason Long recounts “When I was in the hospital after a very bad car accident, I finally got to the point where I remember telling the nurse to turn off the TV. I couldn’t stand to watch one more minute of reality television. She asked, ‘you’d rather have it off?’ I told her that I would rather sit there in silence, than watch another second of this. If I had had some sort of tablet device where I could just watch television of my choosing, it would have made a big difference. I spent a lot of hours alone in that hospital, and I remember looking up at the ceiling because I couldn’t move, my back was broken, and I would just count the dots on the drop ceiling. I would just count them over and over and over and over again. Because that’s all I had available.”

Zoom Into The Future

Zoom Logo

A Facetime call with family, friends, or volunteers is the next best thing to being there. Sometimes, just the amazement of using this technology can be uplifting. A great alternative to Apple devices is Zoom. A Zoom meeting can be done on almost any device and easily set up by staff to facilitate a call between the resident and loved ones.

If a stable enough internet connection or assistance to run the call isn’t available, a tablet connected to the internet can play any music from any genre or plan an old movie or TV show which is magical to someone who has never seen the capability.

What can providers do without being able to be physically close due to Covid-19? 

Handholding or hugging, can lower anxiety and stress but this may not be possible during the pandemic and remember being deprived of touch can lead to decreased mental well-being. The staff and any visitors should be cognizant of this fact and treat the residents with some extra sensitivity.

Since there are no more hugs from family during the pandemic, residents still need physical interaction. At a nursing home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a ‘Hug Curtain’ was instituted to let family members hug safely.

Hug Curtain

A similar installation was put up in St. Pete, Florida for less than $200 and has received national attention. 

Religion and Self Image

In addition to the bevy of ideas above, there are more benefits and methods that need to be taken into consideration. 

A positive self-image

Positive uplifting remarks during staff interaction can go a long way in boosting a resident’s self-confidence. 

Encouraging residents to get dressed and keep up with their appearance will give them the confidence to socialize if you dress well, they will be more confident in other parts of their daily routines.

Is it important to maintain religious service for residents?

For seniors who have had a lifelong affiliation with a weekly/daily religious service, this is one of the key routines which they are familiar with. Even if it’s only an online service or a once a week visit by a pastor or priest keeping this up is something to look forward to. The weekly social connection is beneficial to a lot of seniors as well as spiritual.

Bringing it all together

Social isolation is killing residents in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities as well as CCRCs and other kinds of long term care facilities. Here are some personal stories of loneliness from facilities across the US.

Putting together a set of processes and systems to decrease the impact of social isolation in your facility can mean the difference between a fulfilling life and death for some patients. If you haven’t already please consider how to implement some of the recommendations in this article for your residents.

Combating Depression and Social Isolation in Long-Term Care Video Transcript:

Jason Long  

Hi, everyone, my name is Jason Long. I’m the CEO of Experience Care. And I’m here today with Kevin McCormack. And we’re going to be talking today about social isolation for for residents in nursing homes, SNFs, ALFs, etc. And what can be done about it and how big of a problem it really is. So Kevin, how’s it going? tell tell us, tell us what’s going on with social isolation.

Kevin McCormack  

Good morning, Jason. social isolation. And I’ll start with a little story about my son, who took a year off from college after high school after a year, you know, he decided to want to take a year off, and he worked for the post office delivering mail. And the things that he found and he, you know, came back home after a couple of weeks and said the seniors on his route, all they’re doing is waiting for the man and waiting for the interaction, the anticipation to seeing him and what he in the mail, and he was just dumbfounded by it. And that such a mundane delivery of the mail was the biggest thing they have in their day. And, and every day someone would give him a drink a stack as they anxiously waited for his arrival at some of them waited outside on their front stoop. So that’s an interesting piece. Also, you know, personally, father in law passed away a couple years ago, it was it 98 when he, you know, finally away, but he was, he was living at home, and my wife’s got seven brothers and sisters that around with 30 grandchildren, and still, you know, that, you know, all his contemporaries were gone. But it was still sort of social isolation for him. In fact, it really took a lot of work and effort. No, it’s just amazing. You know, how easy it is to fall into that trap. And even now, with the younger people have the issue, I’ve got two at home that are in college, but they can’t go to the campus so that everything’s remote, there’s blocked off from their, you know, college fun, you know, all the college interaction the social piece, so it’s very difficult for them to so you get an understanding it really hits home. And social isolation, you know, is just, you know, the lack of contact between one individual and their family, their friends, their their support groups and not not having that or not having a support group to, per se.

Jason Long  

Okay, I was gonna say I assume that this is in fact I know that this is hitting the residents of assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities and And also CCRCs. Like, I think it’s hitting everybody. It’s hitting everybody really hard. I know that I visited a few senior communities recently and places where people used to be just out walking out talking to each other, like just seeing each other all the time visiting, and nobody’s doing anything. Like everybody stays in all the time and it’s been I think it’s been really hard for a lot of people especially inside the sniffs

Kevin McCormack  

absolutely, they’re there, they’re confined to the room at times know if there’s a you know, someone with COVID in the facility, and they’re isolating the people that are healthy and they’re not getting out and it’s it leads, you know, and that not only is it you know, a mental health but their overall health, their boredom, lack of interest withdrawal. It ends up poor nutrition, poor eating habits brings a lot of different health problems at cost. to decline, anxiety, depression, they, they’re used to seeing whether it’s, you know, a hug from the staff, or volunteers that come in our family members that now can’t visit them, or it’s very limited as to if they can visit. So it’s really taking a toll on the senior care.

Jason Long  

And I think in addition to that, I read a journal paper. I think it was last year’s this year last year that actually said that one of the number one things you can do to increase your longevity is just social interaction. That that was one of the top biggest things and so if we’re seeing this huge lack of social interaction among among residents of these kinds of facilities, I’m sure it’s it’s it’s a killer. It’s you know, I’m sure it’s it’s not just the depression it’s it’s probably really actually taking years off of people’s lives. What do you think about that?

Kevin McCormack  

Absolutely. You know, the everything that they used to do they look forward to in a facility is been reduced or stopped, you know, temporarily, you know, so if they had, you know, a hobby or the, you know, the visiting pet program came, that’s not coming anymore. So, but those are the things that can be done to combat that isolation. And a lot of those are, had been stopped, you know,

Jason Long  

so what can be done now? Like, what what are you seeing now that’s working? And what recommended, what recommendations do you have for everybody watching about the things that they can they can do to combat things right now?

Kevin McCormack  

Well, one of the things that I’ve seen in I’ve been to a lot of nursing facilities over the years hundreds, if not thousands, that, you know, gardens are really an incredible boost. You know, Whether no just a small outdoor garden that they can go out tend and watch the growth of the because it changes every day. And you know they have a stake in it. They have something to look forward to they have you know, tending a garden everybody does it. It’s a it’s good for it was one of the biggest things that happen during the quarantine is people building gardens. I did one of my backyard.

Jason Long  

I’ve got one of my front yard actually.

Kevin McCormack  

And I’m taking green beans last night and tomatoes and we had all sorts of and brussel sprouts is great. So that’s the kind of thing I mean, even if it’s a small herb garden in the window of each individual’s room, they’re very inexpensive just to be able to see that growth and have something that they’re responsible for to take care of. It gets a sense of self back.

Jason Long  

You know, I wonder also you know, when you’re when you’re handling plants and you know if even if you just Picking fruits or just touching things. I wonder also how much that tactile experience can make a difference in people’s lives.

Kevin McCormack  

I think I think it does. Yeah. You have a history of farming in your family and you were a farmer at one point. You certainly can attest to that. And it’s, I enjoy it. I think it’s fun. I used to only do perennial plants, but now I’m getting into the whole gardening and vegetables and I love it.

Jason Long  

Yeah, it’s so for anybody watching this. I used to be a farmer. I was a blueberry farmer. And I did that for about six or eight years somewhere, which is almost eight years. I was a blueberry farmer and worked on a 60 acre blueberry farm. So yeah, I can definitely relate to. Once again, I was thinking like that tactile sense, but then also just the connection to the land and the connection to the things that are growing. I think that makes a really difference it certainly did for me,

Kevin McCormack  

the seasons and the seasonality and the growth in the the whole planting to harvesting, you know, concept, it, I think it’s a great thing and there’s a lot been written on it, it’s really a great thing to do. So those are some of the things you can do to combat it. You know, certainly you know, you if you’re able to have volunteers and it’s a it’s a great, great way to do that.

Jason Long  

Okay, any other ideas on that?

Kevin McCormack  

Yeah, I think that a lot of facilities might have a facility pet. I’ve been to ones they’ve had cats, they’ve had a dog. But they also have visiting pet programs which you can pay a fee that facility can and they bring a pet in on a weekly basis, let’s say and I see people to people light up on this either pad, you know that a big golden retriever comes in and they visit They go down the hallway. And it’s just remarkable what what occurs.

Jason Long  

Yep. So when when I was in a rehab rehab hospital after a really terrible car accident, they would actually bring bring the pets around. I was there for a while. And I remember always looking forward to the dogs coming around. I was, that was like one of my favorite things was having the dogs come around. So, you know, I was never a I was never in a nursing home. But, you know, I think it was it was it was a somewhat similar experience. I couldn’t get out of the bed I was in bad shape and man, it really liven up my day. Every time I saw that dog, those dogs come around.

Kevin McCormack  

And he doesn’t spy when a dog comes wagging its tail and just wants to be competitive. And it’s it that it’s a great thing. So I’m not a big cat person. But you know, Fox, I think they do. Some programs. Some of them have cats. They bring into some people Cat people and they don’t like dogs. So,

Jason Long  

yep, they had they had I think they brought the cats in as well. But I, they know, I am allergic to cats. I never brought the cats into my room. I think they had some, but I can’t recall.

Kevin McCormack  

Something to think about actually, if you’re going to do that.

Jason Long  

Yep, for sure. For sure. So what about Are there other than just, you know, the, the, the gardening and the pets and things like that? What about the technology? That that’s, we’re a tech company and and there’s so much tech right now available for you know, to connect with people that you care about? Tell me tell me a little bit about that.

Kevin McCormack  

Yeah, you know, go back to personal experience. My father in law, you know, he was in world war two in the Korean War. And during the war, he had you know, some hearing loss but of course, that accelerated add to where the you know, the point, you know, he had tough time interacting with people. He pretended so on. He gets turned it on. I think Even when it was on, he had a hard time. And if if a person in a facility doesn’t have a hearing aid, and they really should, or they’re not wearing it, that isolates them dramatically. It was it, you could see the difference. When you know the battery went on the hearing aid, and it’d be Paul Paul, and you just stare in the space. So there was no interaction whatsoever. So if anybody is in need of, you know, hearing aids or has them, you should make sure they, they have it in because they’re not going to hear the conversation using the phone call that they might have with family and friends, and they’re not going to interact well. So it’s it’s it’s really important that they do use them and you do have hearing checked on a regular basis because it does decline rather rapidly for certain people at certain points in your age.

Jason Long  

You know, coincidentally from me as well. When I had brain damage into that car accident I was in. And I had a I don’t remember the term they used to describe it as medical term, but I could hear you, but couldn’t understand what you’re saying. So like, it didn’t happen if it was a one on one conversation, it wasn’t a problem. But if there were three or four people in the room all talking, I couldn’t understand like you if you were talking to me, I couldn’t understand what what you were saying. And it was isolating. It was really, it was it was frustrating. It was upsetting. And I felt like it couldn’t be a part of the conversations that were happening in especially in a crowded room. And and yeah, I couldn’t imagine like if I couldn’t hear it all it would be be so frustrated resort setting would be so frustrating and it would be really, really isolating. Unfortunately, by the way for me that that’s that’s that’s healed, but I was told at one point, there was a good chance that wasn’t going to heal, and and that was really upsetting.

Kevin McCormack  

Background conversation even with a hearing aid can be very disturbing to someone with hearing loss, because now it’s all amplified. It’s hard to hear. So anytime that you know I go out to dinner or lunch with the senior, I always make sure that you didn’t go to allow restaurant. You can’t do that because they just like, close it and close off completely. And that’s what I found out. That was the reason it can. It it’s just what you described. You get the different conversations they can hear well, no other ways. You know, like I call it adaptive technologies, that but most elderly people or seniors do shun because they don’t want to know it’s just, you know, it might be as simple as a cane or Walker to get people up and out of their room and interact with the staff, the volunteers and other residents of their family members. And some of them don’t want to use it. But you’ve got that encouragement, that confidence, you’ve got to get them up and moving. So it’s super important. And and that gets rid of the isolation instead of eating in your room, you know, eat in the dining area, but it does take that extra, make sure they have the proper equipment to get there.

Jason Long  

Gotcha. Oh, yeah, I can see how that would be. That would be really important. I never, never really thought about that. But yeah, it’s, I’m sure like activities managers out there would be really, you know, it think is really important for them to make sure that that patients and patients not in acute setting that residents are are doing that. What are the what are the things you got one other I’m sure there must be a dozen things like this and the other big ones?

Kevin McCormack  

Well, the you know, another thing you know, just flipping the flip side is with the Net Solutions, we do have our family portal, which allows you to keep Connect into the, into our software to be able to see notifications. And soon will have the results of any lab results that come back. And of course, you want to be part of, you know, the family wants to be part of the care with that it makes it a lot easier and you’re not pulling the nurse away from their care on the floor to be able to do that. So that’s one of the great things about the family portal, you can get updates on your loved one without interrupting the care to maybe your family member or other family, you know, other residents in new facilities.

Jason Long  

Okay, that’s, that’s, that’s really good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for pointing that one out. That’s something I actually had a meeting yesterday where we were working on new ways to improve that system, and it’s looking so beautiful. So I’m really excited to get that pushed out to more and more facilities. And I think that people across the US are going to benefit from it a lot. So thank you for bringing that up.

Kevin McCormack  

I think so as well and it’s, you know, to be able to look in and That’s when, you know, here’s another, you know, a personal story was when mother in law, it was about five years ago, they both quit, you know, little long life, but she was in a nursing facility. And I mentioned earlier that my wife’s family this eight brothers and sisters, and each one of them would call up every day, the nursing facility. Hey, how’s mom doing? But taking eight phone calls for that poor nurse. That’s got to be you know, if you just had five minutes each, that’s a lot of minutes out of their day, to just attend to one for one resident in which is not only not fair to that resident as well as the other residents in the facility, but it’s, it’s just a bad use of time. So yeah, the family portal will certainly, you know, help help with that type of situation.

Jason Long  

Great. Fantastic. Fantastic. Any other notes on it? Things like hearing aids, any other Anything else? I think we got a couple other other tech items to bring up as well.

Kevin McCormack  

Yeah, just want to, you know, one other piece, just make sure that everybody’s up on their vision test and they’re wearing the glasses, because a lot of people don’t like the hearing aid the glare. I wear, I’m just to see close up myself. But if you don’t have the glasses on, you’re not going to be able to, you know, one of the things you’ll miss out that I think is that, you know, you’re not seeing the body language. So you’re missing out of half the conversation. So not only maybe you’re not hearing well, and then you’re not seeing well see you’re missing out again, that isolates people a lot dramatically.

Jason Long  

Gotcha. That’s I can see how that would be really, really difficult, especially if you got the hearing and the vision and the and not leaving the room and you know, all of that added up together, not getting outside like I think that these are really, really good points and In addition to the family portal, I think you’re gonna bring up some other tech things that we that a lot of facilities are doing these days. But really everybody could be doing and a lot of them are really a lot of them should be doing. What do you have on the list for that?

Kevin McCormack  

Yeah, I for technology, FaceTime, great way to connect with the family, volunteers. It’s, it’s really the next best thing to being there. And I’ll bring up another story. You know, one of my brother in law, who’s a monk in Slovenia

Jason Long  

His son in law’s a monk in Slovenia?

Kevin McCormack  

Yes, and he can’t you know, it’s it’s one of these places, you know, once you’re in you’re not, they don’t really let you leave. And the my father in law got over there, you know, five years ago for the last visit, and the last year is life. My son and His cousin, they went over to Slovenia and they did a video. And just like we’re doing here, and he saved it on his phone and came back and then played it on the laptop for you must have watched it 50 times 100 times. And it would say, Dad, how you doing and just go It was probably 1520 minutes long, but he would just watch it constantly. He loved it. And it was just amazing. When amazed by the technology, the amazement, and you know, just on his in his face, it’s just incredible. But it’s so it does work. And it was very uplifting for him. It changed his whole mood for the day every time he watched it. So which is pretty incredible. You also have zoom, which is a an easy to use free. It’s easy to facilitate a call between the resident and their loved ones and nobody can have And someone who’s 93 years old probably isn’t going to be able to pick up a laptop or a tablet and do it. But it certainly can be done by the staff and the staff should encourage it. But they can also, with a tablet, or a laptop, and a connection to the Internet, you can play the music that they love, you know, from whatever genre that they like, maybe it’s 50s jazz, maybe it’s early rock and roll, whatever it might be. You can pull it up, and it’s there. And they make and when you’re 94 years old, you don’t know that and they may be aware of it. But once you get people hooked, it’s amazing. There was a program that was done, where people would send in their old iPods, and then they’d fill the iPods with music and give it to residents. And they would be able to listen all the types of music that they liked. So it’s just another way to do it. You know, if you had a Spotify account, you can just go ahead and put in a you know, a library or station and just just listen.

Jason Long  

I have a quick question. We did a video about the the CMP CMP, reinvestments civil money penalty reinvestment server, what the? What after the sport? Could if you applied for money for the CMP? Could you get the devices that your facility?

Kevin McCormack  

Yes, and they are giving out the money, it’s easy to apply it’s two pages. And each state has a different application process. And if you go to that video, you’ll hear all the details. But the key thing is you can get free iPads essentially. So you know, I I encourage every facility to do that because it’s it’s more than just the FaceTime. You can also pull up and connect to any old movie or old TV show, you know, someone you know likes one of the early TV shows, it can go on, you can click it up on anything on YouTube, and you can watch it and to be able to see and just look at the amazement on some ones face when you can pull up an old, even know these holes in mash, mash, for example, you know, something that’s pretty older Gunsmoke, you know, to be able to see an old TV show that they might be connected with. And it’s, that’s a great thing to be able to do. And you can do it for free. So

Jason Long  

when I was in the hospital, I finally got to the point. So I was in the hospitals before I got moved to a rehab facility. And I remember telling the nurse to turn off the TV, I can’t stand to watch one more minute of reality television, she’s like, you’d rather have it off and I was like, I’d rather sit here in silence, than watch another second of this, this stuff with you and that, yeah, if I had had an iPad, or just some sort of tablet device where I could just watch television, it would or just watch something something of my choosing rather than just reality TV, it would have made a big difference. difference because I spent a lot of hours alone in the hospital. And I remember just like looking up at the ceiling because I couldn’t move, I was on my back and I’m back was broken, I couldn’t move and I would just count the dots on the ceiling. And I would just count them over and over and over and over again. Because that’s all I had to do. That’s all I could do.

Kevin McCormack  

And, and, you know, if you’re a senior and you’re, you know, physically unable to get get out and move around, and you’ve got, you’re going to be in that same situation. I don’t think, you know, the average person realizes, you know, so there’s social isolation with the going through.

Jason Long  

Yeah. But it’s, it’s hard. It’s really hard. It’s like, you know, looking for my family coming to see me every day like that was, that was the thing. That was the thing that I had every day. And if that was taken away, and I didn’t have an All I had was reality television. That would have been terrible.

Kevin McCormack  

If you didn’t pay consent and some people when you get, you know, children, and so they don’t have the family members coming in.

Jason Long  

Yep. All right, got a couple other notes on our list for today stuff. Got a C. So what what can providers do right now? Tell me about what providers are doing at the moment.

Kevin McCormack  

Yeah, so there’s no more hugs from family during the pandemic, but there’s the FaceTime and the phone calls. And there is some limited visiting at this point in time, you know, certain phases of reopening. But there’s still the, you know, the fist bump in the high five. So you still get some of that, you know, one of the things you know, just hand holding and hugging, you know, has the capability of lowering anxiety and stress, but it may not be possible during the pandemic and we will You know, if you don’t have that you’re going to have decreased mental well being you’re going to, you know, they need to the staff and visitors and volunteers need to be cognizant of the fact. And you got to treat the people with a little extra sensitivity during this time period. And I think they I think a lot of people that work in the facilities realize that in the family members, you know, there’s certainly it’s been tough on them.

Jason Long  

Yeah, for sure. I’m no it’s been it’s been really hard. A lot of a lot of family members. So I see you got a note here as well about a positive self image. Tell me tell me a little bit about that. What’s going on what’s going on self image for the residents.

Kevin McCormack  

And the residency You know, you’re you’re somewhat depressed, you’re isolated. You don’t you know, you don’t want to get out of your room. You don’t want to get up you weren’t. You may not get out of bed. But one of the things that could certainly help is you know, the the staff and family members encouraged him to get dressed Get up and that their appearance to keep up the appearance and it gives them confidence. You know, when you dress well you’ll feel competent, just as people say, you know, going into the interview, you know, dress well you know, feel confident and get the job. And the same goes for any part of life, you know, get up, you know, get dressed, and you know, don’t put on sweat pants, you know, put on a button down, you know, feel feel it’ll feel like you’re part of life and I think that that will you know, get it a daily routine it’s going to help.

Jason Long  

Yep, I think that probably a lot of the people that are working from home right now including myself kind of suffer from that. You know, like I I found actually it was a lot better for me when I when I got up and I took a shower in the morning like I was getting ready to go to an office. And then I just came into my front room and got down sat down and started working but like I would get ready to go to work. And it makes a big difference. It makes a really, really big difference. And like, you know,

Kevin McCormack  

whole attitude changes.

Jason Long  

Yeah, putting on a shirt, like, you know, getting ready, being presentable, feeling good about yourself, you know, um, you know, it makes a difference for for you and I, I’m sure it makes a huge difference for people in in skilled nursing and a laughs and like, that kind of thing.

Kevin McCormack  

Absolutely. So everything we’re doing is, you know, sort of amplified in their, in their world as well.

Jason Long  

Yep. So any, any other any other things? Any other major, major points?

Kevin McCormack  

Yeah, I think my last point here is, you know, it’s important to maintain religious service and spirituality for whatever the resident wants or whatever they grown up with Adam. Some of them have a lifelong affiliation with weekly or even daily religious services. And it says those key routines which they’re familiar with If it’s online at this point, are even it’s a, you know, once a week visit by the pastor appease priest in the facility. That’s something that they look forward to. It’s also something that’s, you know, it spiritual for them and it makes it it’s good for him. And just like they, you know, they anticipated the mail. They’re anticipating a Sunday morning service. So it’s, it’s really important.

Jason Long  

Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. And, you know, I actually haven’t checked on this. Are they letting the the preachers, the priests, the rabbis, are they letting them into the facilities now?

Kevin McCormack  

They are and so it’s each state has their own phased openings. So some states say, you know, as soon Yes, and others may, you know, might be, you know, less so, I don’t better not know precisely.

Jason Long  

Yeah, I think it is state by state because I’ve heard in some places where it’s not happening. And I’ve heard in some were was much more liberal and they’re still living in some places I heard I haven’t seen it, but I heard the link family members in more regularly as well.

Kevin McCormack  

It is state by state. So it is different from each state some wide open and others are, you know where I am in Massachusetts. It’s it’s very, very tight and regimented only because we had the worst. Probably one of the worst of it. Not as bad as New York. But people remember that, and they’re very hesitant to just open right up.

Jason Long  

Yep. And I’m in Georgia. So we’re seeing some of the worst right now as well. And the highest case loads in the US. Some of the highest are in Georgia right now. So I’m pretty confident everything here is pretty locked down. So that was a lot of stuff. We had a long video today. It was this was great stuff. So I’m just going to do a real quick recap to make sure we’ve got everything we talked about. personal stories with self self isolation and like what your family members have gone through and what exactly it is what exactly it means. We talked a little bit about how to combat social isolation during COVID-19 with things like the gardening and the dogs and things like the the pet visits and things like that. And then we’ve got the adaptive technologies, things like our family portal, things like zooms that things like FaceTime, etc. We also talked about how to help as far as getting you know, help with the social isolation and a lot of other ways including things like being you know, the high fives and fist pumps from the from the providers. We talked about the positive self image, we talked about maintaining religious services, we talked about what I missed, I missed

Jason Long  

Hearing aids and in making a hearing aids the glasses and making sure that people are Coming down and being social, what are they can in those facilities? And I think that was most of it any anything, any of the big items I missed?

Kevin McCormack  

No, I think he got it all. And z is great. I think it was a great video and a lot of nice points and it certainly relevant in today’s world,

Jason Long  

Apple. Well, thank you so much as usual, how can people find you? What’s your what’s the email address to get in touch with you? If somebody wants to talk about expanding their current services with us, or or doing something new with us?

Kevin McCormack  

It’s (click here).

Jason Long  

Perfect. All right. So for anybody out there who need some help with things reach out to Kevin he is clearly very, very knowledgeable about this stuff. And please, if you get a chance, like our video so that we can share more with you and jump on our newsletter if you want to get these videos on a regular basis. Thank you. You guys so much. And Kevin, thank you so much. I’ll see you again probably next week. Sounds good. Yes. Sounds perfect. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon.

Kevin McCormack  

All right. Bye!