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Caregivers help protect the elderly in pandemic

BY ZACH SHAW

Progress Guest Writer

We are all doing things we never imagined: Wearing masks and gloves and social distancing (who even knew there was such a thing).

But as scary as this pandemic is to any of us fairly young and healthy enough to �ight it, it is killing our moms, dads and grandparents.

Since February, COVID-19 has been affecting the elderly at senior facilities throughout the U.S. Our loved ones are dying or becoming infected at the places designed to keep them safe.

Doctors, nurses and �irst responders are on the front lines risking their own lives to care for those in need, but we need to remember our sometimes-forgotten but very important healthcare providers: caregivers.

Pandemic teaches a big lesson on development

Scottsdale city planners are at an unprecedented crossroads brought on by the debate over increasing the density of population and business throughout the city.

Whether it is in the central part of the city or the far northern hamlets, the issue is the same. The business community wants greater density; others want the status quo or even less.

Witness the heated debates over the Preserve, the Marquee project, Fiesta Ranch, Southbridge II, on and on. While all of this is percolating through the populace Covid-19 has emerged on the scene.

What has this pandemic taught us? What has it warned us against? Overcrowding.

As the board president of an association that advocates for caregivers, I also run an in-home caregiving company.

Perhaps I am biased to the importance of these workers, but I know that they can – and will – play a critical role in preventing the widespread transmissions that we are seeing at so many senior facilities and hospitals.

Caregivers provide one-on-one support to an individual in an isolated environment, often in the home. They help with the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), such as cooking and cleaning, but can also provide the management of medications and hands-on assistance where protective equipment must be worn.

Caregivers are typically either paid workers or unpaid family members.

These caregivers often give the same services as many post-acute facilities in a much more regulated environment – which is so critical during social distancing. They can also help prevent the loneliness that so often affects our elderly, providing a social connection.

So why are older adults being affected so disproportionately? Older adults are more at risk because of weakened immune systems due to the normal process of aging along with other pre-existing conditions.

The close proximity to other seniors and facility staff at many care homes leaves them more vulnerable to a variety of af- �lictions – and not just COVID-19.

Even in the most safeguarded facilities (and they are all doing their best to address this crisis) it’s a numbers game: The more people in and out, the more likely the chance of transmission.

Just as hospitals and rehabs need backup, this workforce will also need reinforcement. We are in the midst of a caregiving shortage and with the current healthcare crisis, the demand for in-home care will only increase. With layoffs and workplace uncertainty caused by the pandemic, caregiving offers

Letters

Scientists have determined that densely populated areas are more prone to the spread of this disease, and for that matter all infectious diseases. Just look at the numbers from the densely populated cities - Wuhan, Milan, Paris, New York, and Chicago. Just consider the cruise ships.

First it was the epidemics of Norovirus on the cruise ships, now it’s Covid-19, there and everywhere else. This is not conjecture this is fact.

Scottsdale has been known for open spaces. That’s why people want to move to Scottsdale. It’s not the steel and glass of Manhattan and it’s not the elbow to elbow crowding of Chicago’s Magni�icent Mile. It’s the openness and the freedom of the West that they seek.

Covid-19 is teaching us that there is a medical value to appropriately spacing humans in the work place and in their living conditions. All of the epidemics of the past, cholera, in�luenza, polio and now Covid-19, have struck hardest at the large population centers.

San Francisco and Los Angeles are fearful of a typhus outbreak in their homeless communities. Who knows what will happen if Covid-19 strikes there?

How do you social distance from one another if you live in a 10-story apartment or of�ice building with four elevators? Yes sanitation, chlorination, and vaccination are necessary components to controlling pandemics, but so is appropriate population density. That is what we already enjoy in Scottsdale. That is what we must strive to continue.

Call it social distancing, call it anti-destable and rewarding employment.

If you need a caregiver, you have to do your homework. Unlike other healthcare disciplines, caregiving is not always licensed or credentialed in Arizona.

This means that just about anyone can provide care legally without having any experience or protections that help provide quality service.

This lack of oversight is why the Arizona In-Home Care Association was formed as a nonpro�it consumer protection and trade association 13 years ago with a mission to protect at-risk populations and caregivers.

Caregivers are going to be the ones who can keep the ones we love – and most at risk from COVID-19 – out of hospitals, post-acute facilities and long-term care facilities. They are going to be the key to keeping others safe in this crisis. -Zach Shaw is board president of the Arizona In-Home Care Association and CEO of Affordable In-Home Care in Scottsdale.

velopment. I call it judicious thoughtful planning of the human environment for health, success, and enjoyment.

Once this latest pandemic is over and life in Scottsdale returns to some facsimile of normal, Scottsdale City Council has a major challenge staring squarely in its face – how to fashion a General Plan that balances thoughtful growth and business development with preservation of the unique spacious character and vibrancy of our desirous community. Just because you can build it, just because it looks magni�icent on a computer-generated rendering, just because the developer is “a good person,” is not enough to crowd more humans into smaller tighter spaces.

Good luck Scottsdale City Council. -Joseph S Janik, MD