People with dementia among hardest hit by COVID-19 health restrictions
Leah Hendry · CBC News
Lyne Gauthier says her husband, Yves Dessureault, who has Alzheimer’s disease, declined rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Société Alzheimer Rive-Sud/Michel Julien)
Public health restrictions have limited family visits, outings and therapeutic connections
Before COVID-19, Lyne Gauthier did her best to keep her husband’s mind from slipping away by organizing activities they had enjoyed together before he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
She would visit the long term facility where Yves Dessureault, 66, has lived for three years and take him on simple outings.
“We’d go grocery shopping, go out for an ice cream cone,” said Gauthier. Sometimes they would just “listen to music and dance.”
But then the coronavirus hit, and there were no more outings.
There were also no more services like pet therapy or music therapy within the facility due to the pandemic.
Gauthier says she has watched her husband deteriorate dramatically in the past six months. He’s now considered to be in the late stages of Alzheimer’s.
“I think COVID has really fast-tracked the progression of his symptoms,” she said.
Gauthier feels the health rules that curtailed their outings and deprived Dessureault of face-to-face contact robbed him of precious time as a husband, father and grandfather.
At his care home, there is little mingling these days and many residents eat their meals in their rooms.
The social isolation has left him more fragile, both physically and emotionally, said Gauthier.
Since the spring, she says, Dessureault appears more upset and anxious. His balance has gotten worse and even the simplest words have lost their meaning.
“If I want to show him where we’d like to sit, I need to tap the seat and do more gestures,” said Gauthier.
“There is a lot he can’t do anymore.”
Worsening symptoms linked to lockdowns
McGill University’s Dr. Isabelle Vedel is leading a research project that will examine the impact of the pandemic on people living with dementia. (McGill University)
During the pandemic, many residents in long-term care experienced rapid cognitive decline, increased depression and more behavioural symptoms such as wandering and agitation, said Dr. Isabelle Vedel, a public health physician and associate professor in McGill University’s Department of Family Medicine.
During the pandemic, many residents in long-term care experienced rapid cognitive decline, increased depression and more behavioural symptoms such as wandering and agitation, said Dr. Isabelle Vedel, a public health physician and associate professor in McGill University’s Department of Family Medicine.
There is some preliminary research from the United States and the U.K. suggesting people with dementia were hit the hardest by the virus.
Not only were they at an increased risk of being infected and of dying from COVID-19, but there were thousands of so-called excess deaths — meaning many more people died than the average for the same period in previous years.
Vedel fears the same will be true in Canada.
“People living in long-term care were extremely affected by the pandemic,” said Vedel. “Eighty per cent of the deaths happened in long-term care in Canada, and we know that approximately 80 per cent of people in long-term care have dementia.”
With funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Vedel is leading a research project in collaboration with Alzheimer’s societies across Canada that will measure the deaths of people with dementia during the pandemic.
It will also examine what impact the disruption of services and access to health care may have had on their lives.
