French care residence combats loneliness with Skype chats
The Skype call needed to be rebooted, but after different attempts Danielle Martin, a 71-year-old locked downward in the French retirement home, could finally see her niece Nathalie via the tablet propped up before her wheelchair.
"There you go, nowadays I can see her," the pensioner thought to Emilie Neumann, an employee at the home whose job because the coronavirus outbreak involves compering video calls between occupants and their families.
Old people are specially susceptible to the coronavirus - in France to day there were 4,166 deaths linked to the condition in retirement homes - so the homes have been banning visitors and confining residents with their rooms.
That has still left elderly people take off from the sociable and family members ties that they rely upon for psychological wellbeing, doctors say. Prior to the outbreak, Danielle Martin's niece would go to her twice a week at the "Jardins D'Emeraude" retirement home, a unit of the Bischwiller Medical center, in eastern France.
Once visits and socializing were banned, the pensioner's days felt emptier. "I can have a siesta and watch TV. There is nothing else to accomplish," she said.
For the time being, worried relatives were bombarding the house with calls seeking updates on the family members, according to Magaly Haeffele, the director of the facility.
The house needed a better solution. After adding out a demand, they received tablets and smartphones from localized charities and donors, and mounted Skype and WhatsApp applications therefore they could be employed for video calls.
To help residents and their relatives with unfamiliar technology, staff members were re-assigned from their frequent functions, and volunteers were drafted directly into help too.
"It allows us to keep up the morale for our people and for our staff, who can sometimes see the distress of a resident who is unable to be in touch with those persons near them," said Haeffele. The video calls are no less important for relatives, staff said.
In their Skype phone, Martin and her niece discussed the weather, swept up on family news and discussed the shortage of some fresh produce to get. But her niece said it was not this content of the chat that mattered.
"I see her face, if she's pale. I know my aunt. When I glance in her eye, I could see if she's very well, if she's ill," she advised Reuters. "When I observe her smile, I'm happy."
