Corona rules in retirement homes: Vitanas Miesbach would like more personal responsibility

Created: 08/12/2022, 08:00

By: Sebastian Grauvogl

Demand more personal responsibility: home advisor Andrea Doyen (left) and home manager Christine Newin in the Vitanas senior center in Miesbach.

© Thomas Plettenberg

Tests, masks, distance rules: What has disappeared from large parts of public life is still acute in care facilities.

But there is resistance in Miesbach.

Miesbach

– There was no mistaking the fact that life was back in full force outside.

The music from the folk festival tent echoed through to the Vitanas retirement home in Miesbach, reports home advisor Andrea Doyen.

So close - and yet unreachable far away for the current 94 residents, because: Due to a corona outbreak, the entire facility was closed for two weeks in June.

"Like in lockdown," says Doyen.

The ban on visits came into force again, even service providers such as pedicurists were not allowed to enter the home.

Not even with an FFP2 mask and a negative test.

Anyone who wanted to leave the home as a resident was only allowed to do so if accompanied by the staff.

Doyen does not criticize the fact that people in nursing homes are particularly protected from the virus.

Nevertheless, she no longer considers the strictness of the measures in the current phase of the pandemic to be justified.

While the majority of society relies almost entirely on the personal responsibility of citizens when it comes to protection against infection, the residents of care facilities continue to be deprived of their freedom enshrined in the Basic Law.

Also read: Home managers report on the difficult everyday corona life in senior centers

Doyen himself currently has no relatives in Vitanas.

Her mother, who was suffering from dementia, died in autumn 2021.

And yet she can still remember very well what the residents and their families have been through since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Above all, the ban on visits would have hit everyone hard.

Even when these were relaxed, you were only allowed to see each other through a plexiglass pane and under supervision in a large room.

As a relative, you still feel like a potential source of infection despite the mask and test.

Home director calls for more personal responsibility for residents and relatives

Home manager Christine Newin can understand Doyen's displeasure.

Nevertheless, after the outbreak in June, after consultation with the health department, she decided to block contact for two weeks.

Also because a good third of the staff was infected with Corona.

"If it had spread further, we would no longer have been able to ensure care," explains Newin.

But after 14 days everything was over.

"And we were able to celebrate our summer party." Also because none of the residents was seriously ill.

"It ended up being like a cold."

Also interesting: chief physician on the "dramatic corona situation" in the Agatharied hospital

This is one of the reasons why Newin wants politicians to do what Doyen demands: more personal responsibility for residents and their families.

As the manager of the home, she currently has to make the decisions on her own – and ultimately be accountable for them.

"Of course, when in doubt, you play it safe," admits Newin.

With the result that she then had to justify herself again for the strict rules.

The manager of the home can no longer understand the vaccination requirement for the staff - although 97 out of 100 employees are vaccinated.

Especially since vaccination with the current virus variants hardly protects against infection anyway.

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Treat corona like any other virus?

In the long term, Newin is convinced that there is no way around treating Corona like other viruses.

Everyone must be able to decide for themselves whether and how they protect themselves.

Doyen agrees.

In times before Corona, it was accepted that influenza or noroviruses were carried to a nursing home.

"These viruses can also be deadly for immunocompromised individuals."

However, the home advisor concludes from the current "Recommendations for a visit concept and for social participation in old people's and nursing homes" from the Bavarian Ministry of Health that politicians have not been interested in adapting the regulations to the changed overall situation.

"They are now one year old."

so called