'Everything was decided for us': Saskatoon long term care resident describes 'inhumane' hardships of COVID-19 lockdowns

SASKATOON -

At one point during the COVID-19 pandemic, Debi Funk wanted to see her daughter.

Instead of being allowed to do so, the Sherbrooke Community Centre resident says she was referred to a psychiatrist.

"This made me feel like when it came to my safety, the only thing that was considered a risk was COVID, but I think residents having mental health struggles is also a risk to our safety," she said Wednesday in a presentation to the Saskatchewan Health Authority board.

"When it came to my safety, my own choices were not asked or considered. It felt like because we live in a care home we were not able to make any of our own decisions about what we did or didn't want to do during the pandemic.

“Everything was decided for us. However, the other people of Saskatchewan were allowed to choose what they felt safe doing, as long as they live within the public health orders."

She said pandemic restrictions on long term care homes have made her feel like she wasn't considered a part of society.

"I remember listening to a press conference in the winter, 2021, where (Chief Medical Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab) made a comment that we had to reduce public health orders because having such high levels of restrictions was inhumane.

"This was hard for me to hear at that time because where I lived, we were in the middle of a 55-day lockdown, which meant that I wasn't allowed to leave my room, and often even couldn't go and have a shower. It made me wonder how these kinds of ongoing outbreak impacts would not be considered inhumane if the ongoing public health orders were being called that."

She has become skeptical that all information is shared and she has a hard time trusting that what the government says will actually unfold.

In the spring, the health minister announced that long term care homes would be opening up - but that information did not come from Sherbrooke and she was still not able to leave her home, she said.

That miscommunication came with a heavy personal cost.

"It took weeks of back and forth to see this clarified, we were left with a lot of uncertainty. Uncertainty about what these changes meant for us as residents. Recently an outbreak was declared in my home, and the information that was shared did not provide details that I needed to know about whether I could go to an event or have family come in.

"The care team didn't know what they should be doing, and different information was being shared with different residents, which was very frustrating. And it meant that I missed out on a very important family gathering when I actually wouldn't have had to. It was my mom's 80th birthday so it was difficult."

None of the SHA board members had any questions or comments for Funk following her presentation.