The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is launching a new care partner program as visitor restrictions remain in place because of the pandemic.
CEO Lori Marshall says she knows restrictions have been hard on families and patients alike.
“A care partner is someone who has a very significant relationship with a patient and is there to provide that visiting piece but also provide much more of that emotional support for the patient,” Marshall explains. “Maybe in some cases it’s an individual who helps to feed a patient, helps to get them up, walk around, make sure there’s that very deep connection.”
The program is being launched in the Rehab and Complex & Continuing Care units, where patients tend to have longer stays, but hopes the program will be expanded to other units by the end of September.
“While certainly we know that everybody in the hospital would like to have a visitor, we do think there’s a difference between someone who may be here for two or three days and someone who’s here for months or maybe potentially years.”
Marshall says she doesn’t see the hospital having completely relaxed visitor rules in place in the foreseeable future as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
