Video chats keeping seniors in Pennsylvania nursing facilities connected with families

Terry Dobradenka never video-chatted before the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, platforms such as FaceTime and Zoom are keeping the 90-year-old retired nurse connected with family members who know her as Gigi. They can’t visit her at Lower Burrell’s Bayberry Place personal care home because of restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of covid-19.

“FaceTime is much better than just the telephone. It’s almost like being there. I get to see him and we talk,” Dobradenka said of video chats with her great-grandson Zander.

The majority of skilled nursing, assisted-living and personal care facilities in the Pennsylvania Health Care Association have programs in place to help residents visit virtually to “maintain the same level of engagement with their loved ones,” said association President and CEO Zach Shamberg.

Shamberg understands the challenge firsthand.

“I can tell you when my family thought about my grandfather using the technology, they said there was no way he could do it,” said Shamberg, whose grandfather was diagnosed with dementia and lives in a personal care home near Philadelphia.

Staffers have helped Shamberg’s grandfather use the technology to stay connected with family, including for a virtual birthday party last week.

“It broke our hearts not to be able to visit him,” Shamberg said, adding that he and his family were on FaceTime with his grandfather as he blew out candles on a birthday cake.

“We were happy for a chance to see him,” Shamberg said. “It’s different. But it’s the new normal for now.”

The same situation is playing out at facilities across Pennsylvania.

“I give credit to the staff across the state for thinking outside the box and making sure we’re not having our seniors isolated in their rooms,” Shamberg said.

At Bayberry Place in Lower Burrell, staffers are helping roughly a quarter of the 24 residents participate in virtual meetings with loved ones, according to Brandon Weimerskir, the facility’s executive director.

In addition to using platforms such as FaceTime on cellphones, Bayberry Place is using its three laptops to help facilitate virtual meetings on platforms such as Skype and Zoom.

“It’s an evolving concept for sure,” Weimerskir said.

For Dobradenka, a former head nurse at Harrison’s Allegheny Valley Hospital, the video chats have been the next best thing to seeing loved ones in person, as she did several times a week before the pandemic.

Shannon Godfrey of Brackenridge, who works at Bayberry Place and has been able to see her grandmother in person through the pandemic, said Dobradenka “lights up” when she sees her great-grandson in a video chat.

“There’s my Zander!” Dobradenka says when her great-grandson’s face appears, according to Godfrey.

“It gives her a boost. She’s full of energy,” Godfrey said.