Residents at senior living home in Springfield are adapting to new coronavirus norm
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Residents at the Sweetbriar Villa in Springfield are staying engaged, active, and healthy despite the challenges of COVID-19.
That’s according to the home's executive director who says residents in the senior living home have needed to adapt to changes to their typical visitations and activities.
The senior living home does not allow visitors inside due to social distancing requirements, but window visits and Skype calls are helping keep spirits high. For their part, workers in the home are wearing masks and sanitizing surfaces on a daily basis.
“We do a lot of window visits here. We have one wife that comes every single day. I just saw her this morning with an umbrella over her head. And she's visiting through the window with her husband. We have people who Skype. We have a system here called IN2L. I call it the Facebook for seniors,” said Ivy Lizsow, Executive Director of Sweetbriar Villa.
One resident, Helen, turned 99 on Saturday, but her family lives in Texas. They were unable to visit her due to the pandemic, but her senior living home family has made her feel extra special on her birthday.
“They might be seeing their regular families, but they're getting attention from their sweet briar family. It's really hard not to hug and kiss everybody when we see them. Because we're such a small community, so we're really really close. We're doing lots of air hugs and blowing kisses,” said Lizsow.
They've held bingo and happy hour in a very large room to accommodate safe social distancing and have been holding group art projects. They’ve even had residents and staff hold races with remote control cars.
