In her most recent update to the community, Wales Home Executive Director Brendalee Piironen wrote that she is troubled by the number of visitors and family members who are not respecting the home’s COVID-19 regulations and warned that any visitor found to be in violation of the safety measures will now be forbidden to visit in the future.
“If you’re not complying, you’re not coming in,” the executive director said, adding that disrespect of the rules and of the staff is a daily occurrence.
Although Piironen said that some families have been exemplary in their care and concern about making sure that the home is as safe as possible since visitors have been allowed back, others seem to have no sense of the risks involved.
“There are some people who just don’t seem to believe it’s that serious,” she said, “but we’re at too high of a risk now to let people off with a warning.”
Piironen said that there have already been family members expelled from the facility for disrespect of rules, staff, or both.
“It’s exhausting for the staff, who already have a full workload on top of having to police visitors,” she said.
When going to see with loved ones, visitors to the Wales home must always wear a mask or face covering for both indoor and outdoor visits. Visitors are not allowed to eat or drink anything, whether inside or outside and they are not allowed to smoke on Wales Home property. All visits are restricted to a resident’s room and visitors must always maintain a distance of two metres both indoors and outdoors. All personal belongings, including keys, purses, and phones, are to be left in the car or at door number one.
“It’s not just us,” Piironen added, sharing that she has heard similar stories of disrespect and difficulty with visitors from her colleagues at a number of other seniors’ homes across the province.
