Amid the continued restriction on visitation at such facilities as special nursing homes for the elderly to prevent new coronavirus infections, the introduction of visitation via the internet has been spreading. Online visitations not only helps ease the anxiety of residents and their families but also provides a chance for family members living far away to meet with their kin more often than before.
First time in 2 months
Early afternoon on April 17, Tsugiaki Saegusa, 84, a resident of a special nursing home named "Caretown Narimasu" in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, stared at a computer that had been placed on his lap and smiled as the faces of his wife Yoshie, 82, and other family members appeared on the screen.
Yoshie asked "How are you doing? Do you want something to eat?" to which Tsugiaki responded: "I'm all right. I'd like some deep-fried chicken." He enjoyed talking to their daughter Miwako, 50, and his grandchildren for about five minutes. They ended their online chat waving to each other over the screen.
The special nursing home, with 80 residents, has been under restricted visitation rules since late February. As the restriction was extended following the government's April 7 declaration of a state of emergency, the home began allowing online visitation. Residents' families first reserve online visitation times and then make a video call using free communication app LINE.
Yoshie has visited Tsugiaki at the home once a week since he entered the home four years ago. Yoshie's April 17 visit with her husband, though online, was the first in two months. Although she didn't exchange many words with him, she said, "I was relieved to see him looking healthy."
Since late February, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has been urging elderly care facilities to restrict nonessential and nonurgent visits as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Families of residents at such facilities have expressed their anxieties, saying, "We are worried about whether they are doing all right" and "Due to the progress of their dementia, I afraid that they will forget about us." For this reason, individual facilities have begun making visitation arrangements by utilizing calling apps and teleconference systems.
Various methods tried
The ministry urged elderly welfare facilities to learn how to utilize such online services as video calls when visitations are restricted. But given that there are families who are not accustomed to using the internet, various methods that don't use the internet have been tried.
According to the Tokyo Council of Social Welfare, nursing facilities for the elderly in Tokyo request that visitors visit with their resident relatives through the window. At another facility, an arrangement was made, at the request of a family, for visitors to watch over their resident family members from outside the facility with the use of binoculars while they were out on the balcony.
The Sakai municipal government in Osaka Prefecture planned to begin a service on April 30 to lease tablet terminals free of charge to senior nursing facilities when arrangements for online visitations cannot be made on their own.
Prof. Reiko Ishiyama of the International University of Health and Welfare, who is familiar with supporting such families, said: "Visitation is important to maintain the relationship between residents and their families and to ensure peace of mind. It is desirable to continue interactions in one way or another. Online visitation will expand the possibility of its use by families living further away. It is essential to have a third-party perspective when operating nursing facilities for the elderly from the viewpoint of preventing them from being closed off from the world.
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