'Almost back to normal': After more than a year, Gainesville nursing homes open to visitors

Apr. 16—More than a year after David Behnke and his wife, Bonnie Taylor, of Palatka, moved his mother, 92-year-old Lynda Behnke, into a Gainesville nursing home, he finally had a chance to put up her keepsake photos on the walls.

"We moved her in March 2020, got here in the afternoon and had to leave within a few hours," Behnke said while placing a portrait of himself and Taylor on the wall to the right of his mother's bed earlier this week.

Wednesday was the first day Behnke and Taylor returned to her room at Charter Senior Living — formerly Brookdale of Gainesville, 1001 SW 62nd Blvd., since visitors were allowed inside again. Gov. Ron DeSantis in late March discontinued the last of four emergency orders that placed restrictions on nursing home visitors due to COVID-19.

In October, the state allowed visitors in facilities where no virus cases were detected in the past two weeks, and they had to wear personal protective equipment in line with current CDC guidelines. Visitors must still be masked, but now they are allowed to physically touch loved ones inside their rooms.

Christine Rodriguez, Charter's executive director, said it was difficult for residents not to be around their families.

"As a leader of this community, it was the most traumatic time," she said.

Activities like exercise, tea parties and karaoke had to be adjusted to allow for greater distancing between residents, and they're still not able to take Charter's bus to get lunch, go shopping or visit museums.

Resident Care Coordinator Stephanie Dennis said the burden fell extremely heavily on the memory care residents, who didn't recognize their caretakers when they went in their rooms wearing full protective equipment like gowns, gloves, face masks and shields.

"To them it didn't look like we were people, and it felt like they were in a hospital," she said.

Although health care workers were among the first people who became eligible for coronavirus vaccines in December, not everyone has taken advantage of that chance.

Rodriguez, Charter's executive director, said that while about 95% of residents are vaccinated, she's "disappointed" that only about half her staff chose to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I understand that it's a personal choice, but I almost feel like health care workers omit that right to choose," she said. "People are scared, and I think that's OK that they are, I just want to keep my residents safe. That's my No. 1 job."

Aside from that, she said, the staff have done great work during the pandemic and wouldn't have been able to weather the challenges without each other's support.

Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a retirement community that consists of independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care residents, has a higher rate of staff vaccination so far. As of this week, about 76% of Oak Hammock staff have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, said Chief Executive Troy Cannaday. About 98% of Oak Hammock residents are vaccinated.

He said Oak Hammock is reopening its visitor policies in phases after having a "full lockdown" for its health pavilion residents — those who aren't independent. Independent living residents also were asked to share where they were going when they left campus, to help with contact tracing if necessary.

Beginning in October, outdoor visits were allowed, along with indoor visits through plexiglass. Indoor, in-room visitations began in March with up to two visitors allowed in each unit at once. That number's since been bumped up to eight residents at a time and is expected to increase again to 16 at a time next week. All visitors are required to make an appointment and indoor visits are limited to two hours.

"Basically, we're at the point where we're almost back to normal operating processes with visitors," Cannaday said.

Latrecia Richardon, a certified nursing assistant at Charter, said she can relate to her patients after spending a year away from her family during the pandemic.

"I know I've been away from family and it's so hard, I can only imagine what they're going through," she said.

Richardson, who's energetic and loves to dance to music with residents, only joined the staff at Charter about a year ago and said she's heard a lot about residents' loved ones.

"I'm excited to actually meet the families," she said.

___

(c)2021 The Gainesville Sun, Fla.

Visit The Gainesville Sun, Fla. at www.gainesville.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.