We’ve all heard stories from the pandemic regarding how seniors have been treated that have not turned out well. At the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of senior care facilities were not well prepared for this event. Some people faced poor living conditions and neglect as a result. The care centers that were trusted to help these older folk were not able to do so in the manner that they had hoped to. Unfortunately, this has been the case for a lot of people. Luckily, as we gain a better understanding of the virus, the care that nursing homes and assisted living facilities are providing has improved greatly.
But there have been a lot of stories that have the opposite outcome. For many, those that receive care have seen a big increase in the amount of time that they are able to spend with the people that they love. The pandemic has been able to foster quality time in these instances.
Part of the difference is the type of care given.
Care that focuses on the needs of the individual tends to be better. Although nursing home models do play an important role in our society, these facilities are often focused on having a lot of people reside there. Meeting the needs of a large group of people is tough, especially when things like a pandemic, staffing shortages, and uncertainty come into the picture.
Human interaction is a key component of mental health. The increased amount of quality time in our homes has been beneficial for so many, even if it has been hard.
This hasn’t been unique to seniors. Surveys from the beginning of the pandemic reveal that parents self-reported a large increase in the amount of quality time that they spent with their kids. This took a lot of different shapes, ranging from games, family walks, and other activities where time was spent together. It wasn’t just the elderly that saw an increase in family quality time during the pandemic.
This has been a blessing in disguise for a lot of people. Many of us found ourselves overworked, stressed, and exhausted. The pandemic forced us to slow down and really think about the things that were important to us. And for a lot of people, family was where that focus landed.
This blog post would be incomplete if I didn’t mention that this was not the case universally. While many reported that they were able to spend more quality time with those that they loved, not everyone found themselves benefitting from this. Unfortunately, a lot of people found themselves trapped in abusive relationships, alone, or otherwise in a situation that they might have been able to avoid if it wasn’t because of the pandemic. The good things I wrote about in the paragraphs above did not happen for everyone. In fact, some people found themselves in a really bad situation because they were now spending more time in their homes due to the pandemic. This only highlights the importance of why a skilled, quality care service is important.
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